It’s no secret in Hollywood that Sarah Jessica Parker does not do nude scenes, at least if she can avoid them. Like a lot of actors, especially female ones, Parker is all too aware that gratuitous nude scenes are often snuck into the script at the director’s discretion, despite adding little to no value to the plot. More often than not, they come at the expense of the actor’s comfort on set.

Parker has always been a trailblazer when it comes to setting clear boundaries. In her HBO drama, Divorce, for example, she had a non-nudity clause written into her contract. The same is true of Sex and the City and And Just Like That. In the latter two shows, Parker plays a sex columnist but rarely ever appeared in sex scenes and never nude. Sex and the City ran from 1998 to 2004, during which time Parker turned her character Carrie Bradshaw into a perpetual cultural icon, essentially proving her point.

In fact, in a recent conversation on The Howard Stern Show, she explained that her no-nudity rules have rarely been an issue in her career. ‘Any time we’ve had those conversations, we’ve reached a decision where both parties felt they were getting what they needed,’ she explained. ‘When it’s been written in and I’ve had conversations with directors and/ or writers, I never felt as though they were being cheated in some way.’

However, there was one instance where things became ‘pretty acrimonious’ when a production team on a film Parker was working on tried to push her into a nudity scene against her will. ‘I’ve had a situation on set, post a discussion about no nudity being required to do the scene, and it became pretty acrimonious and really uncomfortable for me,’ she explained.

‘So much so that I called my agent and said I thought we had been clear and had this conversation and now they’re telling me I have to be nude tomorrow and they’re making a lot of jokes about it on set. You know like, “Sarah Jessica is going to be nude in the bed tomorrow!”. And it was all men on the set, so there was all of a sudden this kind of culture, and I didn’t care for it.’

Fortunately for Parker, she went on to reveal that her agent immediately FedExed her a plane ticket home for the following morning as a bargaining tool and then called the producers and said, ‘this conversation will stop, if not, she’s flying home in the morning’. And it worked – they dropped the idea and didn’t ask again.

Did her resolve hurt the film? Of course not. ‘It was a massive success,’ Parker points out. ‘It was not necessary at all. It didn’t take away from the story and it didn’t take away for me not to be nude or uncomfortable.’ The And Just Like That star did not elaborate on which film she was referring to.

Naturally, Parker’s privacy around intimacy and nudity extends to other parts of her life too. During the Howard Stern interview, she explained that it’s one of the ways she’s most different to her iconic Sex and the City character. Even with her friends, she does not like to disclose details about her sex life. ‘I have never been someone who has discussed intimacy with my closest friends,’ she said. ‘I’m not against it and I think it’s wonderful that people who need to and want to can have those conversations and I’m very present for friends who want to discuss that, but I typically don’t contribute.’ She then paused and added, ‘I’m not religious and I come from a really progressive home, so I don’t know why I’m disinclined.’

Of course, Sex and the City wouldn’t be the seminal cultural behemoth it is without sex and nudity. Parker’s co-stars Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristen Davis, as well as hundreds of other actors who starred in the show over the years, all featured in several nude sex scenes throughout its run. But, as Parker points out, it should always be down to personal preference and what the individual actor is comfortable with.

‘I have no judgement about it at all,’ she continued. ‘I never wanted to do [nude scenes] and as long as the director didn’t feel they were being cheated, I was happy to maintain that position. I always felt like it was a democratic part of the decision-making process – who feels comfortable doing what. Those who don’t are free to tell the story in a different way.’

It’s not a result of embarrassment either – Parker doesn’t watch her own work back anyway. For anyone who has seen the opening episode of season three of And Just Like That, yes, it means she was saved the embarrassment of rewatching her phone sex scene with John Corbett who plays Aidan Shaw. The scene sees the long-distance couple attempt phone sex while Carrie is half asleep in bed and Aidan is drunk in a parked truck outside his house. They are on very different pages when the call begins and Aidan, rather excruciatingly, spits into his own hand to hurry the process along while Carrie fakes it on the other end of the phone. Understandably, it became one of the most talked about (and cringed at) moments of the first episode.

All Parker had to say on the matter, particularly the spitting, was, ‘You should probably reach out to Corbett. He’s pretty open about these kinds of choices.’ And as per usual, she remained poised, private and tight-lipped. ‘I haven’t seen most of Sex and the City. And I haven’t seen And Just Like That.’ No further questions.