And Just Like That episode 4 made Kristin Davis worry Charlotte had become 'insane'

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Some of My Best Friends," the Dec. 23 episode of And Just Like That.

"It is unacceptable that we do not have a more diverse friendship circle!"

This week on And Just Like That, Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) found herself in the midst of a hosting crisis. After inviting her chic Black friend Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) over for a dinner party, Charlotte realized her entire guest list was "very vanilla" (a.k.a. white) — and suddenly she found herself scrambling to find another Black couple to invite. Though Charlotte and "LTW" ultimately bonded over the "diverse friendship circle" dilemma, Davis admits she was worried about one particular scene — when Charlotte pressures her BIPOC neighbor to "pop in" at the party — the first time she read the script for "Some of My Best Friends." EW talked to Davis about her concerns, as well as where Charlotte's friendship with LTW (or "Black Charlotte," as Anthony calls her) will go in future episodes.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What excited you the most about reprising your role as Charlotte?

KRISTIN DAVIS: I love Charlotte. I've always been very open about wanting to come back in whatever way Michael Patrick [King] and Sarah [Jessica Parker] dreamt up. From that perspective, I would always come back. I think the really interesting part of coming back is to be able to do new things. Yes, of course, the more emotional dramatic part is difficult as it is in life, but I also feel like it is part of life. All of us are in our 50s and we've all been through a lot, as has everyone in the world. So that felt true and real to me. Then there's a lot of other things that are going to come [into play]. You've seen four [episodes], which is more than me by the way! I haven't seen [episode] 4. I'm very excited to see it. I love that script.

What were some of the things you wanted to explore with Charlotte in 2021?

Well, I definitely wanted to explore race because we hadn't really before in the show, as we all know. It's something that's very important to me. I felt that if we have this opportunity that we should take it, and we do. It's been a joy, and our new writers and our new actors have just been mind-bogglingly brilliant and wonderful, and they have so many ideas. It's been such a great collaboration with them, like Keli Goff, who wrote [episode] number 4. That was so much fun.

We talked about which artists [should be in LTW's apartment] for months and months. Because you have to go through the artist and the agent [to get the rights], and it's a process. We really wanted to be current and on point, but also we had to make sure that [the pieces] were available to us. So it was a whole thing. We stressed about it because we wanted to be good, and we wanted to be real. Charlotte really means well, as we know, but she's not perfect by any means.

I love Nicole Ari Parker, who plays LTW. I loved her input in all things, but especially the scene that we have later where we're having coffee and we talk about [the dinner parties]. That was a very, very important scene for us, and a scene that changed, I don't know, possibly 10 times. We were really trying to get it right, get the right tone, the proper gravitas, but also the fact that these are just two people coming together. It's not easy to do.

It does feel very true to the character that Charlotte would be stressing out that she and Harry do not have "a more diverse friendship circle." How did you find the right tone for her story line?

[Laughs] Well, that's not hard at all because I'm alive in the world right now, and I've already had to deal with a lot of these issues because I have Black children. A lot of this is very, very familiar to me in terms of my friends and my family and different people around me, where maybe that was something that they had to deal with. Also, I loved to hear Keli's point of view, and I loved to hear Nicole's point of view because we're trying to make something that is relatable to all. I always trust Michael Patrick in terms of knowing how Charlotte would or would not react, and he always modulates me if I'm in any way off.

In terms of her freaking out, I felt really nervous about the [scene with the] neighbor, and that [Charlotte] would seem like a fully insane human being. Do I?

No. That scene plays like Charlotte when she really has her mind set on something, and in this case that something happens to be getting this specific neighbor to come to her party.

That's good. Then it turned out as it was supposed to. That scene, I read it on the page and I was like, "Ooh, Charlotte might have gone around the bend!" But then at the read-through, everybody really laughed, so I was like, "Okay, I need to try to do this correctly." Michael and I had a lot of conversations about it, a lot, to get the right tone and to make sure that I don't seem too crazy, but also legitimately stressed.

What can you tell us about Charlotte's friendship with LTW and how it will progress over the course of the season?

I love Nicole so much. She's just a dream, and Chris Jackson, who plays her husband, is also amazing. We have some fun, fun, upcoming stuff, oh my goodness me. They really gave us a workout, so to speak — you'll understand when you see it. There's a lot of interesting things about the relationship and about LTW as a character. If we are lucky enough to come back, I really look forward to more LTW and Charlotte together. I think there's more to be mined there. She's a documentarian, an art collector, a mom of three, she's a boss in so many ways. I aspire to [be] both LTW and Nicole, basically.

Anything you can tease about Charlotte and her daughter Rose, who is exploring her gender identity?

Honestly, I don't know how much I can tell you, because I didn't know that you were gonna see more [episodes] than I saw! I can just say that parenting is a journey and a process, and kids come into the world with their own thing going on and you cannot control that. And, as we know, Charlotte, one of her central issues is about control, so I think it's really perfect that she has children that she can't control. Lily has some stuff coming as well [that] pushes Charlotte's buttons. Because that's what children do! And you get to see what a wonderful husband and father Harry is.

Finally, do you own a Peloton?

[Laughs] I don't own a Peloton, but not for any reason other than I'm not sure where I'd put it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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And Just Like That episode 4 made Kristin Davis worry Charlotte had become 'a fully insane human being'

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