Willie Garson’s absence on the rest ofAnd Just Like That…this season has been explained.
The actor, who portrayed Carrie Bradshaw’s best friend Stanford Blatch, tragicallydied in Septemberwhen the series was filming.
During the fourth episode of theSex and the Cityrevival, which dropped Thursday on HBO Max, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) was back in her old Upper East Side apartment after deciding to sell the one she shared with late husband John James Prescott, a.k.a. Mr. Big (Chris Noth).
HBO Max
Soon, Stanford’s husband Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) appeared at her door and shared a few more details, but not before chiding her for taking up smoking again.
“You’re smoking?” he asked, to which she replied with another question, “Stanford’s in Japan?”
Anthony then sat Carrie down and showed her a video on his phone of a young girl dancing.
“That’s Ashley,” he explained. “The 17-year-old Long Island TikTok star he manages. She’s huge in Asia. She asked him to go on tour with her. I do not get her, but then I’m old, gay and not Japanese.”
“Well fine, good, sayonara,” Carrie said. “But why the dramatic note? ‘By the time you read this, I’ll be in Tokyo.’ Who is he, the lost Bronte sister?”
Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max
“He said he couldn’t bring himself to tell you he was leaving face-to-face after Big died,” Anthony said.
“Right, and a note is so much more compassionate,” she quipped.
“Oh you know Stanny, he hates to disappoint people … in person,” Anthony teased in response.
Carrie then told him that she would have preferred to hear the news from Stanford in person, despite her recent loss.
“Still, you know, if something good is happening in one of my friends' lives — and I’m assuming he considers this good — I want to know about it. No matter what is going on in mine. Good news or bad, I want to know,” she said.
“Really?” Anthony said. “I got a letter too. He wants a divorce.”
“I don’t get it. We were so happy,” he added, a cheeky reference to the couple’s constant bickering.
Mario Cantone, Sarah Jessica Parker and Willie Garson filming “And Just Like That…” in July.Gotham/GC Images
Garson died in September at the age of 57 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. At the time, executive producer Michael Patrick King told PEOPLE that Garson’s “spirit” and “dedication” were ever-present on the set of the revival.
“TheSex And The Cityfamily has lost one of its own, our amazing Willie Garson,” King said. “His spirit and his dedication to his craft was present every day filmingAnd Just Like That… .”
Willie Garson.Phillip Faraone/WireImage
Parker, 56,reflected on her friendship with Garson, which spanned over three decades, in anInstagramtribute following the news of his death. “It’s been unbearable. Sometimes silence is a statement. Of the gravity. The anguish. The magnitude of the loss of a 30 + year friendship,” she wrote.
“Willie. I will miss everything about you. And replay our last moments together. I will re-read every text from your final days and put to pen our last calls,” Parker continued. “Your absence is a crater that I will fill with blessing of these memories and all the ones that are still in recesses yet to surface.”
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New episodes ofAnd Just Like That…drop Thursdays on HBO Max.
source: people.com
