CANNES — Sarah Jessica Parker says she has an uncomfortable relationship with social media, and admitted it has taken her some time to get used to Twitter, fearing it could “somehow destroy” her.
The “Sex and the City” star revealed she got emotionally tangled up with Twitter trolls and haters, as well as the many asking for her help and favors.
In conversation with Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles, SJP said, “It has been complicated for me, I am often conflicted by it and my participation it … I still feel conflicted about the conversations I have with Twitter.”
While admitting that her tweets to promote the New York City Ballet had a positive impact, she said she is troubled that she cannot respond to all the people asking for help, and even others sending nasty messages.
Parker said, “I feel like I need to respond to every single solitary plea for a retweet or a birthday wish … or a note of encouragement, or a sick child or a parent. I feel like I am constantly falling short of those wishes and requests. That is complicated for me personally.”
Adding that her public support of President Obama and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had attracted negative comments on Twitter, she continued, “How to respond to things that are not completely friendly? … As a responsible person should I open up a conversation with someone who is saying unlikable things, or should I let it go?
“I am not complaining about Twitter, I am just trying to figure it out. And to have a relationship with it that I think is honest, but also so it doesn’t somehow destroy me.”
Coles had some helpful advice: “I have tried to build a persona on Twitter which isn’t necessarily me — and never do it when I am drunk.”
Parker — wearing a stunning bright pink pair of stilettos from her own footwear collection — also talked about her new show for HBO, “Into The Fire,” about a married woman in her 40s who embarks on an affair.
She said, “What we have discovered researching this project is that women are having affairs in their 40s … there still aren’t a lot of women on television, particularly in that age group, and what is happening to women’s lives right now in their 40s and their 50s.”
Coles joked to the crowd, many of whom are in Cannes to soak up as much of the party scene as the sessions, “Anyone having an affair out there? You’ll be having an affair by the end of this week … In the Hollywood way of doing affairs, you think of ‘Fatal Attraction,’ you think of ‘Unfaithful’ — someone always ends up dead. Just saying, this week, keep that in mind.”