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Alec Baldwin Almost Played Mr. Big on ‘Sex and the City’

Alec Baldwin and Chris Noth as Mr. Big
Alec Baldwin and Chris Noth as Mr. Big on 'Sex and the City'

Hold onto your Manolos. Sex and the City creator Darren Star said this week that Chris Noth wasn’t his first pick to play Mr. Big in the beloved HBO series, which premiered in 1998; in fact, the role was originally intended for 30 Rock alum Alec Baldwin.

“I was thinking of Alec Baldwin for Big, initially,” Star told Entertainment Weekly this week in a new interview. During that time, Baldwin was an A-list heartthrob who was coming off acclaimed, successful films including 1988’s Beetlejuice, 1990’s Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October and other hits. Then, there was Noth.

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Alec Baldwin in 'Miami Blues'
Alec Baldwin in ‘Miami Blues’

“I don’t really watch Law & Order, but I met with Chris Noth and thought he was perfect,” Star recalled. “I remember the first table read, how good he was. I’m not saying that Chris was Mr. Big, but he brought a lot of his own persona to the role.”

He also revealed that Carrie’s other main squeeze on the series, Aidan Shaw, was nearly portrayed by somebody other than John Corbett. “We initially were thinking about Aidan Quinn for Aidan, but I think he wasn’t available,” Star recalled. “I loved John Corbett in Northern Exposure, and we were like, ‘Well, what’s John Corbett been up to?’ He just had the laconic, dudish vibe. But we kept ‘Aidan’ because we loved the name.”

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Star has divulged many behind the scenes thoughts about SATC recently with fans. In January, the Younger mastermind opined about whether Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) should have ultimately ended up with Big.

Chris Noth and Sarah Jessica Parker on 'Sex and the City'
Chris Noth and Sarah Jessica Parker on ‘Sex and the City’

“I think the show ultimately betrayed what it was about, which was that women don’t ultimately find happiness from marriage,” the producer, 54, said during a Kindle Singles interview. “At the end, it became a conventional romantic comedy. But unless you’re there to write every episode, you’re not going to get the ending you want.”

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Series heroine Parker, 51, subsequently disagreed (respectfully!) with Star’s take. “As I recall, the way Carrie and Big married was something she wanted,” the star told Yahoo Style last month. “Rather than [Carrie] feeling that life was slipping away and she best settle quickly. I don’t think of it as someone diminishing herself by letting a man marry her — it always felt that she had arrived at that on her own.”

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