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Amy B. Harris has been with Sex and the City since the pilot as a producer, and has been a writer on the show for the past three seasons. Before Sex and the City, she worked on the CBS series Central Park West and on the editorial staff of Vanity Fair magazine. She has also worked in development and on various productions for Darren Star Productions.
What do you like best about your job?
Pretty much everything. I love the people I work with - the crew, the cast, the other writers, the HBO'ers. It is so exciting to be able to go to work and know you are working with some of the most incredible people in the industry. And just being able to write about things that actually happen in your life and in the lives of the people you know is both terrifying and thrilling.
Knowing how difficult the last few years have been for New York has only made me appreciate and love my Sex and the City family and the larger family that is New York City. This city is so tough and resilient while still being compassionate, caring and exhilarating. I think the four women of Sex and the City embody those traits as well and it makes me incredibly proud to be working on a show that celebrates life and love and friendship during such difficult and challenging times.
What is your process when writing an episode?
At first I let all the ideas and themes that we have been throwing around, gel for me. This most often includes a great deal of procrastination, which I prefer to call "thinking time," where I wander around the city and try to get inspired. Then, I need to come up with an opening scene that does two primary things. One, it either evokes a very relatable experience for the audience or gives the audience a juicy little tidbit about New York and number two, begins to illuminate the theme of the episode. After that I become very strict with myself and give myself a certain number of scenes to plow through every day. I take a day off after finishing the last scene and try not to think about the episode so that when I read the script, I will hopefully, have some perspective to see what does and doesn't work, what is and isn't funny and rip the whole thing a part and try to make it better. This process usually continues until my drop-dead due date where I nervously turn the script in and hope that I can live up to the brilliant writing of my friends/colleagues.
Do you write from your personal experiences?
Yes. I think all of us in the writer's room draw on our everyday experiences. Whether it's an embarrassing gynecological exam or a great date or a relationship that fell apart, we all use our experiences to fill out the stories for the four women.
What do you do to get inspired?
I go out on bad dates and sometimes, when I am lucky, some pretty good dates, walk around the city, eat at hip, new restaurants, wander through museums, stroll through stores, read the New York Times and the New York Post, and most importantly while I am writing, jog on the West Side Highway path and hope my brain fills with ideas from all the things I've experienced in this amazing city.
What's the hardest scene you've had to write?
The hardest scene for me to write, emotionally, was the scene where Aidan moves out of Carrie's apartment and leaves her legal papers. We knew as a writing staff that Aidan and Carrie could not stay together. In my mind, because they were not meant for each other, but I simply adore John Corbett and knowing I was writing the scene which would be his last broke my heart.
But the most difficult scene for me as a writer to write was the scene where Carrie goes over to Charlotte's and confronts her about why she did not offer her the money for her apartment. It was challenging because I wanted it to be clear that each woman was entitled to her opinion and her perspective on the topic. But because it was a full-blown confrontation, Charlotte and Carrie needed to say things they believed to be true but in a manner that they might regret later. At the end of the scene though I wanted to be sure the audience knew that the argument was never about money but about the value of friendship and two women struggling with their own worth in the world.
How does being a New Yorker shape your writing?
Being a New Yorker shapes everything we do. Just going to the new "in" restaurants, walking down the street and being surrounded by people, or looking for the ever elusive perfect apartment are all a part of the things that make New York so unique and the show such a great reflection of it. It's not enough that the women walk down the streets of New York - it really is a particular head space that makes you a true New Yorker and I think living here just makes it all that much easier to tap into that.
Do you spend time at locations featured in the show before writing them into a scene?
Yes. I love to go to places and think about the women in those locations. It really helps to have had experiences in a place and then write about it. From a technical perspective you can write in a way that maximizes the potential of a location and from an attitude perspective, it's always good to have a handle on what the pulse of a place is. And of course, getting to experience so much of New York and calling it "research" is just another great perk of the job.
Which SATC character do you identify with most?
I think I relate to all of them in different ways. I'm cynical like Miranda, but ever hopeful like Charlotte, and I wish I could be as uninhibited as Samantha. And like Carrie, I hope that throughout all the things that happen in my life, I learn a little something.
Do you have a weakness for shopping, dating or any other SATC behavior?
I have fantastic and expensive purses and shoes and don't feel an iota of guilt about it.
Over the years, how has your writing for the characters changed?
The characters have changed and grown so much over the past five seasons just as everyone I know has changed so much in the six years that I have been a part of this show. So I hope as I have grown and matured, my writing has grown and matured as well. These characters are like real people to me who have a history and context in the world. They learn from their past experiences and become more layered and complicated with each year. Hopefully, that shows up in the experiences that we write for them and the way that each character deals with each new event.
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The Look
Browse fashions from all six seasons of Sex and the City. |
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