Kim Cattrall on Porn, Her Sex and the City Future and Logan's Run Past

Kim Cattrall's latest, Meet Monica Velour, is about what happens after women are chewed up and spit out of the adult film business. It's a tale with obvious parallels for many actresses Cattrall's age in Hollywood -- parallels that touch on themes of clinging to something from the past or, as Cattrall puts it, "To play a character that I'm known for, for the rest of my life?" So does that mean she won't play Samantha Jones again?

Meet Monica Velour features Cattrall as Linda Romanoli, a porn refugee who once went by the movie's titular pseudonym. Long past her prime, she's tracked down by a young fan named Tobe (Dustin Ingram), who still envisions Monica as the beautiful star she was in the 1970s. In reality, Monica can barely make ends meet and is fighting for the custody of her daughter from an abusive ex-husband. Movieline met with Cattrall to discuss the film, the challenges 50-something women face finding work in Hollywood, her future with the Sex and the City franchise and her experience as one of the last Universal contract players -- which would find her on series from The Incredible Hulk to Logan's Run.

This movie is a little more depressing than one would think. What about it appealed to you?

I think it's the kind of film that's really interesting. It's a film that's comedy, it's a love story and it's very heartfelt at the same time. And sweet and complicated. I think that's what worked for me, when I read it, on so many levels because there was so much going on. The major conflict is fighting for the custody of her daughter, but, it's also a world he's created -- especially with Tobe. This is his vision. This is only what he sees; he doesn't see the reality of what Monica is and has become. He just sees her as his heart's desire.

Did you specifically want to do something that was different than what people generally recognize as your most popular roles?

Well, I thought it was really well written, first of all. And, also, I'm in my 50s, so there are very few terrific roles for women written after 35 in film. It gets really complicated. Why? I don't know. We worship youth. And what happens to women -- not just porn stars -- but what happens to women after their 40s? I think the envelope has been pushed a bit for the 40s, but 50s, it's like "Oh my God." But we're intelligent, we're sexy, we're desirable, we're alive, we're productive... but we're marginalized as far as the media is concerned. Because we don't buy 10 CDs, or we don't go see movies seven times, you know? That doesn't mean that we don't exist. And we should be represented. And even though this woman's circumstances are not of a very positive vein, at the moment when you meet her, there is something about her that is what she represents. And [that's] what's going on, not just for that character in that particular circumstance, but for most women in their 50's.

So do you feel what Linda is going through mimics your own career? You still seem to get good roles.

I know, but a lot of them are coming to me from -- especially the theater work I've been doing in the West End -- it comes from work that I've already done. And people knowing that I have a desire to play a lot of different kinds of roles and to work with a lot of different kinds of people. Whether it's Peter Hall or Richard Eyre or Keith Bearden or Roman Polanski -- yes, I'm very fortunate but that's where my attention is. My attention is taking challenges and taking chances because I figure this is what I love to do. People say, "Well, why do you choose to do that?" and, in some ways, I don't really feel like I have a choice. Because what is the choice? To play a character that I'm known for, for the rest of my life? I would feel like I'm holding on to something that is in the past, you know? What is the future? What is now? Where do I want to work? Who do I want to work with? What are the projects?

And that's what's exciting for me: those people are not marginalizing. They're saying, "Absolutely! I want to see Private Lives with a woman in her 50s and a man who is 35. Why not?" A lot of people would say, "That would never happen." Really? That would never happen? I think you're living in a different time and you're holding on. Why not let those things happen? And then the films opens and people say, "Wow, it wasn't just a 17-year-old that was an interesting character, that woman in her 50s -- I really understand what she was going through. She was fighting for the custody of her daughter. She's fighting for her job. She's fighting to be heard. She's fighting to live."

By holding on to a character in the past, does that mean you don't want to play Samantha Jones ever again?

No, I don't think so. I love playing Samantha. I take it as a great compliment that people think that's who you are or what you do. But it isn't. And I want to do more than that. I find that very satisfying, but, ultimately, it's limiting in some ways if you want to do more. If not, holding on... the thing about holding on to anything, it disappears. You can't hold on to your youth, to your desires. They change and they evolve, hopefully. That's how we grow. Who knows? I might play it again. I have no idea. That doesn't mean that I can't revisit it, but it's so exciting to play something as different as this and to ground it in a different kind of reality.

Speaking of reality, I've never given serious thought to what happens to female porn stars after they retire. Especially one as famous as Monica was -- she was even in a Star Wars parody...

Yeah, exactly. She was in many parodies of a lot of movies, as a lot of porn movies are. They've even done porn of Sex and the City... whoa! It's an easy sell.

Do you think what happens in this film to Monica is the norm?

What do they have? They get married. And they get some kind of job, whatever job they can -- they don't have a lot of training. Some of them start stripping, some of them do a radio show. I think there are very few female porn stars who would go into directing or anything like that. They go into kind of deals where they promote sexual toys or panties or whatever. They try and survive. But a lot of them go to nowhereville and try to start again. But this is a woman who can't do that. Everybody knows her in this little town where she's at, she can't even get a five-bucks-an-hour shampoo job in this town. What does she do? She lives on whatever handouts she can get.

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