Samantha Jones (Sex and the City)

Infobox character
colour = Pink
name = Samantha Jones


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first = Pilot (episode 1.01)
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nickname =
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gender = Female
born = Summer of 1958
occupation = Public Relations
title =
family = unnamed parents
two siblings
spouse =
children =
relatives =
episode = 94
portrayer = Kim Cattrall
creator =

Samantha Jones is a fictional character on the HBO-produced television series "Sex and the City". She is portrayed by actress Kim Cattrall.

Character History

Samantha is one of four single friends portrayed in the series. Of the four, she is the most sexually promiscuous, and most of her storylines revolve around the frequent sex she has. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and a self-proclaimed "try-sexual" (meaning she'll try anything once).

Samantha is the oldest of the four friends (in season 6, she reveals she is "forty fucking five"), and she owns her own public-relations company. Not much is known about Samantha's younger years, except that she came from more of a working class background, and she spent most of her teenage years selling Dilly bars at Dairy Queen to earn pocket money. Season 3 implies that she has at least two siblings, when she mentions that at her age her mother "was saddled with three kids and a drunk husband." She later mentions partying at Studio 54 during its heyday, implying she moved sometime in the mid to late-1970s from wherever she grew up to New York City. She has mentioned having had at least two abortions, one of which occurred while living in the college dormitories. She also (presumably) was the youngest of the four main characters to lose her virginity. While she never comments on her exact age when this happened, she references having sex with a guy as early as 13, simply because "he had a swimming pool," and she implies that this was not her first sexual partner.

In the early part of the series, she lives on the Upper East Side, but ends up moving to an expensive apartment in the Meatpacking District, after one of her late-night visitors lets in a mugger who attacks one of her older female neighbors.

One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. When Carrie confesses to her that she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend "Mr. Big," and is cheating on her own boyfriend, Aidan, as well, Samantha tells her that judging is not her style, and offers her support. Although she fights with Charlotte a few times, they always manage to get past their differences and make up. Despite having trouble adjusting to Miranda having a child, she willingly gives up a coveted hair appointment and sends Miranda in her place, staying behind to babysit and give her friend a much-needed break.

In the show's last season, Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer. She faces the challenge head-on, playing with her look by wearing outrageous wigs, hats, and headscarves after she loses her hair to chemotherapy. In one of the final episodes, she gives a speech for a cancer benefit dinner, and receives a standing ovation for removing her wig onstage and admitting that she was suffering with hot flashes. The audience appreciated her candor and honesty, and many of the women in the audience stood up and removed their own wigs.

ex and the City: The Movie

Four years later, Samantha has moved to Los Angeles with Smith to further his acting career: he's now playing a doctor on a famous US daytime soap opera. Samantha, who used to be so sexually free, finds herself attracted to a hunky neighbor, Dante, who she regularly sees nude when he takes a shower or has sex with various women. Dante is the male version of Samantha. However, she remains faithful to Smith. Yet, she finds herself questioning whether or not her strained relationship with Smith should be continued. She eventually tells him she "loves herself more than she loves him," and breaks up with him. Our last view of Samantha is her celebrating her 50th birthday and toasting to the next fifty.

Relationships

Samantha's main love is men—many of them. Over the course of the series, she sleeps with plenty of interesting characters, including a man who will only "swing" with her if she takes an AIDS test, a seventy-two-year-old millionaire, a college student with the same name (Sam Jones) from the mid-west eager to lose his virginity, a guy with "funky spunk," and a trainer from her gym who brands her by shaving her hair "down there" into a lightning bolt. She never keeps the men around for long, usually requiring them to leave "an hour after [she] climaxes." She once said that she frequently loses underwear because she leaves them at they guys' places and never returns. She even slept with her good friend Charlotte's brother, prompting an angry Charlotte to call Samantha's vagina "the hottest spot in town: it's always open."

Samantha rarely dates men more than once or twice. She does have a few "serious" relationships throughout the run of the series:

James

Samantha meets a man named James (James Goodwin) in a jazz bar at the end of season one. In an unusual move for Samantha, she doesn't have sex with him right off the bat, instead taking a leaf from Charlotte's book, because she felt he was a man she could marry. After declaring that she was in love with him, the two finally have sex, only for Samantha to discover that James was seriously under-endowed, to the point where she could not experience any physical pleasure. In the last episode of season one (Oh come all ye faithful), she tells Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda that he is only three inches long when hard, and that she doesn't even receive any pleasure out of giving him a blow job because his penis is so small. Though she tries to work through it, she eventually breaks up with him as they attend a couples' counseling session. She confesses she is unable to feel someone as small as a baby carrot, to which he replies angrily by saying that maybe her vagina is too big.

In a funny counterpoint to her predicament with James, in the second-season episode "Ex and the City," Samantha meets Mr. Too Big, who warns her of his huge endowment as he undresses. Samantha squeals with delight as the story segues to another character. Later in the episode, when Samantha reappears, she is slowly guiding Mr. Too Big between her legs. After much hesitation, she seems to finally relax while drawing him in (she thinks), only to be asked if he can start. A shocked and fearful Samantha pushes him away with her foot on his chest and begs off the encounter.

Maria

In season four, Samantha flirts with lesbianism and enters into a brief but serious relationship with a woman: an artist named Maria (Sonia Braga). The girls find this relationship a complete shock, and Charlotte proclaims, "She's not a lesbian, she probably just ran out of men!" Samantha feels she is not a relationship person, and she initially only wants to remain friends with Maria. Maria tells Samantha she cannot continue being just friends with her, and Samantha decides to take a chance and kisses Maria. Samantha seems intrigued about learning the act of pleasing another woman, thus learning more about her own sexuality. Once their sex begins to dwindle and they spend a lot of time talking, Samantha begins to tire of their relationship. Maria also becomes upset when Samantha's sexual past catches up with them. Samantha ultimately ends up missing men too much and, although Maria decides to try strap-on sex, the two break up due to Maria's belief that Samantha has "intimacy issues."

Richard Wright

Later in season four, Samantha meets and falls in love with hotel magnate Richard Wright (James Remar). Though the two seemed well-matched, as they both liked to sleep around and are not interested in relationships, Samantha finds herself becoming increasingly attached to Richard. The two eventually commit themselves to a monogamous relationship. However, Samantha only has her heart broken when she catches him cheating on her. After giving Richard a second chance, she decides to end the relationship when she realizes she can't trust him. In the last season, she runs into Richard while out at a party with her new boyfriend, Smith, and Samantha and Richard go upstairs to have sex. During intercourse, Samantha is seen looking uninterested and even not enjoying being with Richard. Smith waits for her downstairs, knowing what she has done, and she breaks down in his arms, apologizing to him.

Jerry Jerrod/Smith Jerrod

Samantha meets a twenty-something waiter/actor/model named Jerry Jerrod (Jason Lewis), while dining with the girls at a new, hip restaurant called "Raw." She later returns alone to the restaurant, even though the food is horrible, with the sole mission of taking him home; she succeeds. Although, at first it seemed he was to be just another notch on her bedpost, this one stuck around.

Seeing that he is broke and struggling, Samantha uses her PR skills to jump-start Jerry's acting career, and changes his name to Smith. Samantha likes that he is not intimidated by her success (as opposed to Carrie's ex-boyfriend Jack Berger), and with her influence, he quickly becomes a celebrity. He first gains attention when he models naked in an film.

Reluctant at first to admit they are dating, Samantha grows to miss him while he is on location shooting his movie. Smith returns from his film and shows her true affection, which Samantha finds unsettling. (As she explains to Carrie, he tried to do something purely perverse to her in public: "He tried to hold my hand.") Eventually, she begins referring to him as her boyfriend. It appears that the two live together, since Smith refers to her place as "home," and he has keys to the apartment.

Smith remained with Samantha through her brush with cancer, even shaving his hair when her hair began falling out, and then proceeding to shave hers. Samantha experiences no sexual libido during her chemotherapy, and she encourages Smith to have sex with anyone he wants while in Canada filming his next movie. Smith compares her situation to winter: "just because the trees are bare doesn't mean they're dead." While he is away, he sends her unbloomed flowers with a message on the card reading "Looking forward to spring." She calls him to tell him she changed her mind about the sex with other women suggestion, and he tells her, "Cool," meaning he hasn't and he won't. Smith returns to New York in the middle of the night, flying back after their phone call to say that he loves her. Samantha replies that he "means more to [her] than any man [she's] ever known," which, for Samantha, is a huge statement. Their last scene together shows the two having sex and Samantha enjoying herself; the previously unbloomed flowers show one that has now opened.

References

External links

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* [http://www.observer.com/2007/sex-and-city Archive of the original "Sex and the City" newspaper columns]