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Is Lisa Todd Wexley the New Samantha Jones? Nicole Ari Parker Has Some Thoughts

Lisa Todd Wexley from And Just Like That is the woman we all aspire to be. She’s a fierce, fashion forward businesswoman who makes balancing motherhood, marriage and her career look like child’s play. It’s no wonder the character has already garnered so much attention on social media. But here’s what we really want to know: Is LTW the new Samantha Jones?

PureWow sat down with actress Nicole Ari Parker to address that very question and discuss her partnership with Bounty and Microban 24. While chatting about her character on the HBO series, she said that the sultry Samantha is virtually irreplaceable. 

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Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

“I think Samantha was an iconic character. I would never want to replace or step into that role,” she told PureWow. “Kim Cattrall did that for 20-plus years. That's set in stone.”

Parker also commended the writers for making the reboot more inclusive. She continued, “I think that the wonderful thing about And Just Like That is that they really, in this new iteration, made the city start to look like the city. You know, they brought two Black women characters, not just one. They brought [a] nonbinary Latino, they brought one of my best friends, Sarita Choudhury, and they really tried to make the writers room create well rounded characters. So, I'm really proud to be a part of this new version of it.”

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Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

Aside from the show’s incredible growth in terms of diversity, Parker also spoke about how she relates to LTW. As it turns out, the Park Avenue princess feels very familiar to her. She said, “I think that her wardrobe is way better than mine. And she's very fly all the time. But what I do love about playing her is that I know this woman. I know that there are Black women who collect art and are very established in happy marriages, that live on the Upper East Side and on the Upper West Side in New York.” 

“I love that this is a new portrayal. And it's not a token and it's not one dimensional,” she continued. “She has a full life. She's active in the community in the art world. She's a New Yorker, and I just love that because just like you, just like me, we know that woman exists. Whether it's in our family or in the workplace, and we very rarely see her just being her. In her Saint Laurent pumps, picking up her kids from school.”

Major kudos to Parker for bringing such a memorable and fascinating character to life.

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