Samantha Jones is a main character in the HBO franchise, Sex and the City. She is best friends with Carrie Bradshaw. She is portrayed by actress Kim Cattrall.
Sex and the City[]
Samantha is one of four single friends portrayed in the series. Of the 4, she is the most sexually promiscuous, and most of her storylines revolve around the frequent sex she has. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and a self-proclaimed "tri-sexual"/"try-sexual" (meaning she will try anything once).
Samantha is the eldest of the four friends, nearly a decade older than the others; in season 6, she reveals she is 45 years old. She runs her own public relations firm. Little is known about her early life, other than she comes from a working-class background and started working at a Dairy Queen selling Dilly bars at the age of 13 to earn some pocket money. In season 3, Samantha mentions she has at least 2 siblings, reflecting on how her mother "was saddled with 3 kids and a drunk husband" by her age.
Samantha's youthful curiosity about adult themes is hinted at when she recalls stealing her father’s Playboy magazines, sparking her admiration for Hugh Hefner. Her first oncologist, Dr. Pinkner, notes that she has no family history of breast cancer. She also reminisces about her party days at Studio 54, indicating her move to New York City in the mid to late 1970s. In "Sex and the City 2," it is revealed that she met Carrie around 1986 or 1987 while working as a barmaid, sporting a blonde perm and dressed in Whitesnake-esque glam rock attire from the 1980s. She has mentioned having had at least 2 abortions, 1 of which occurred while living in the college dormitories. She also (presumably) was the youngest of the 4 main characters to lose her virginity. While she never comments on her exact age when this happened, she references having sex with a guy as early as 13, simply because "he had a swimming pool," and she implies that this was not her first sexual partner.
In the early part of the series, she lives on the Upper East Side, but ends up moving to an expensive apartment in the Meatpacking District, after one of her late-night visitors lets in a mugger who attacks one of her older female neighbors.
One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. When Carrie confesses to her that she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend "Mr. Big," and is cheating on her own boyfriend, Aidan, as well, Samantha tells her that judging is not her style, and offers her support. Although she fights with Charlotte a few times, they always manage to get past their differences and make up. Despite having trouble adjusting to Miranda having a child, she willingly gives up a coveted hair appointment and sends Miranda in her place, staying behind to babysit and give her friend a much-needed break.
In the show's last season, Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer. She faces the challenge head-on, playing with her look by wearing outrageous wigs, hats, and headscarves after she loses her hair to chemotherapy. In one of the final episodes, she gives a speech for a cancer benefit dinner, and receives a standing ovation for removing her wig onstage and admitting that she was suffering with hot flashes. The audience appreciated her candor and honesty, and many of the women in the audience stood up and removed their own wigs.
Sex and the City (film)[]
Four years later, Samantha has moved to Los Angeles with Smith to further his acting career: he's now playing a doctor on a famous US daytime soap opera. Samantha, who used to be so sexually free, finds herself attracted to a hunky neighbor, Dante, who she regularly sees nude when he takes a shower or has sex with various women. Dante is the male version of Samantha. However, she remains faithful to Smith. Yet, she finds herself questioning whether or not her strained relationship with Smith should be continued. She eventually tells him she "loves herself more than she loves him," and breaks up with him. Our last view of Samantha is her celebrating her 50th birthday and toasting to the next fifty.
And Just Like That...[]
Samantha now resides in London and had previously severed ties with Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte following a professional falling out; Carrie had dismissed her from her role as a publicist. The rift remained evident as Samantha ignored messages and calls from the trio. However, the dynamics shifted when Mr. Big passed away, prompting Samantha to send flowers to Carrie for his funeral. The issues between Carrie and Samantha were later resolved during an off-screen reconciliation in Paris. It is implied that she also gets back in touch with Miranda and Charlotte during that time.
Subsequently, Samantha contacted Carrie while en route home from Heathrow Airport, expressing her regret at missing Carrie's "Last Supper" dinner—an event marking the final night in her apartment before selling it. Samantha had planned a surprise 24-hour visit to see Carrie, but unexpected fog in London forced her to cancel the trip.
Physical Appearance[]
Samantha is a busty blonde, and sassy femme fatale woman in her 40s, standing 5 feet 7 inches tall with a medium build and toned figure, showcasing athleticism with sculpted abs, muscles, and rounded hips and buttocks. Her pale skin contrasts with hazel eyes and a radiant smile, and she has a beauty mark on the left side of her chin. Her blonde hair, shoulder-length with bangs, alternates between wavy and straight. She is stated to be strikingly beautiful multiple times by many characters in the series.
After undergoing chemotherapy, Samantha shaved her head into a buzz cut and wore colorful wigs. She later adopted a brown pixie cut, which she dyed back to blonde. In the films, her hair is blonde, shoulder-length with bangs. Her wardrobe is glamorous, feminine, and often provocative, emphasizing her bold and sexy style.
Relationships[]
Samantha's main love is sex, lots of it. Over the course of the series, she sleeps with plenty of interesting characters, including a man who will only "swing" with her if she takes a HIV test, a 70-something year old millionaire, a college student with the same name (Sam Jones) from the mid-west eager to lose his virginity, a guy with "funky spunk," and a trainer from her gym who brands her by shaving her hair "down there" into a lightning bolt. She never keeps the men around for long, usually requiring them to leave "an hour after [she] climaxes." She once said that she frequently loses underwear because she leaves them at they guys' places and never returns. She even slept with her good friend Charlotte's brother, prompting an angry Charlotte to call Samantha's vagina "the hottest spot in town: it's always open."
Samantha rarely dates men more than once or twice. She does have a few "serious" relationships throughout the run of the series:
James[]
Samantha meets a man named James Goodwin in a jazz bar at the end of season one. In an unusual move for Samantha, she doesn't have sex with him right off the bat, instead taking a leaf from Charlotte's book, because she felt he was a man she could marry. After declaring that she was in love with him, the two finally have sex, only for Samantha to discover that James was seriously under-endowed, to the point where she could not experience any physical pleasure. In the last episode of season one (Oh come all ye faithful), she tells Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda that he is only three inches long when hard, and that she doesn't even receive any pleasure out of giving him a blow job because his penis is so small. Though she tries to work through it, she eventually breaks up with him as they attend a couples' counseling session. She confesses she is unable to feel someone as small as a baby carrot, to which he replies angrily by saying that maybe her vagina is too big.
In a funny counterpoint to her predicament with James, in the second-season episode "Ex and the City," Samantha meets Mr. Too Big, who warns her of his huge endowment as he undresses. Samantha squeals with delight as the story segues to another character. Later in the episode, when Samantha reappears, she is slowly guiding Mr. Too Big between her legs. After much hesitation, she seems to finally relax while drawing him in (she thinks), only to be asked if he can start. A shocked and fearful Samantha pushes him away with her foot on his chest and begs off the encounter. Later in the episode when Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte sing songs from The Way We Were, Samantha states "I miss James."
Maria[]
In season four, Samantha flirts with lesbianism and enters into a brief but serious relationship with a woman: an artist named Maria (Sonia Braga). The girls find this relationship a complete shock, and Charlotte proclaims, "She's not a lesbian, she probably just ran out of men!" Samantha feels she is not a relationship person, and she initially only wants to remain friends with Maria. Maria tells Samantha she cannot continue being just friends with her, and Samantha decides to take a chance and kisses Maria. Samantha seems intrigued about learning the act of pleasing another woman, thus learning more about her own sexuality. Once their sex begins to dwindle and they spend a lot of time talking, Samantha begins to tire of their relationship. Maria also becomes upset when Samantha's sexual past catches up with them. Samantha ultimately ends up missing men too much and, although Maria decides to try strap-on sex, the 2 break up due to Maria's belief that Samantha has "intimacy issues."
Richard Wright[]
Later in season four, Samantha meets and falls in love with hotel magnate Richard Wright. Though the 2 seemed well-matched, as they both liked to sleep around and are not interested in relationships, Samantha finds herself becoming increasingly attached to Richard. The two eventually commit themselves to a monogamous relationship. However, Samantha only has her heart broken when she catches him cheating on her. After giving Richard a second chance, she decides to end the relationship when she realizes she can't trust him. In the last season, she runs into Richard while out at a party with her new boyfriend, Smith, and Samantha and Richard go upstairs to have sex. During intercourse, Samantha is seen looking uninterested and even not enjoying being with Richard. Smith waits for her downstairs, knowing what she has done, and she breaks down in his arms, apologizing to him.
Jerry Jerrod / Smith Jerrod[]
Samantha meets a twenty-something waiter/actor/model named Jerry Jerrod, while dining with the girls at a new, hip restaurant called "Raw." She later returns alone to the restaurant, even though the food is horrible, with the sole mission of taking him home; she succeeds. Although, at first it seemed he was to be just another notch on her bedpost, this one stuck around.
Seeing that he is broke and struggling, Samantha uses her PR skills to jump-start Jerry's acting career, and changes his name to Smith. Samantha likes that he is not intimidated by her success (as opposed to Carrie's ex-boyfriend Jack Berger), and with her influence, he quickly becomes a celebrity. He first gains attention when he models naked in an Absolut Vodka ad, in which he appears as the "Absolute Hunk." This publicity leads to a role in a Gus Van Sant film.
Reluctant at first to admit they are dating, Samantha grows to miss him while he is on location shooting his movie. Smith returns from his film and shows her true affection, which Samantha finds unsettling. (As she explains to Carrie, he tried to do something purely perverse to her in public: "He tried to hold my hand.") Eventually, she begins referring to him as her boyfriend. It appears that the two live together, since Smith refers to her place as "home," and he has keys to the apartment.
Smith remained with Samantha through her brush with cancer, even shaving his hair when her hair began falling out, and then proceeding to shave hers. Samantha experiences no sexual libido during her chemotherapy, and she encourages Smith to have sex with anyone he wants while in Canada filming his next movie. Smith compares her situation to winter: "just because the trees are bare doesn't mean they're dead." While he is away, he sends her unbloomed flowers with a message on the card reading "Looking forward to spring." She calls him to tell him she changed her mind about the sex with other women suggestion, and he tells her, "Cool," meaning he hasn't and he won't. Smith returns to New York in the middle of the night, flying back after their phone call to say that he loves her. Samantha replies that he "means more to [her] than any man [she's] ever known," which, for Samantha, is a huge statement. Their last scene together shows the two having sex and Samantha enjoying herself; the previously unbloomed flowers show one that has now opened. Four years later, the pair are still together, but Samantha eventually decides to end their relationship.
Trivia[]
- Samantha is one of the few characters originally depicted in Candace Bushnell's "Sex and the City" newspaper column. She is described as a fortyish movie producer who is "sometimes" Carrie's best friend and has a thing for young actors but also craves true love. She doesn't get along with Mr. Big. In the epilogue, Samantha gives up on New York after going to L.A. for the Oscars and meeting young actor Tyler Kydd at a party. They start living together, but Tyler has vowed never to marry her because he failed to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Despite this, Sam is producing his next movie.
Quotes[]
- "I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want as long as I can breathe and kneel."
- "Look, we're as fucked up as you are. It's like the blind leading the blind."
Gallery[]
