Kristin Davis Weighs in on Justin Theroux's 'Frightening' Season 1 Sex and the City Character — and Why He Did the Show Twice

Kristin Davis is looking back on Justin Theroux’s two appearances on Sex and the City, and marveling at the actor’s versatility in playing two completely different “man-of-the-week” characters.

On the most recent episode of her Are You a Charlotte? podcast, the actress and guest Oliver Hudson took a deep dive into the season 1 episode that featured Theroux’s first appearance in the beloved HBO series.

“This first one is such a shock,” Davis, 60, said, adding that she “only vaguely remembered” Theroux’s guest appearance in “The Monogamists.”

“I think Sarah Jessica [Parker] and Matthew [Broderick] were friends with Justin from New York,” she explained of The Leftovers star’s Sex and the City double dip.

In the 1998 episode, Theroux, 53, appears briefly as an egotistical writer who flirts with Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw at a party.

“He plays a kind of a frightening character that we've all probably met, which is, like, the writer of the moment, the cool dude,” Davis said. “He's so good at playing this, like, kind of charming and kind of smarmy guy. And then later, he plays someone just fully opposite, but also still a writer, I think, which is also interesting.”

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Theroux did indeed return to the show the following year — sporting a different haircut, glasses and less flashy style — in a larger role. In season 2’s “Shortcomings,” the actor played another writer with a less abrasive personality, whom Carrie briefly dates.

Davis speculated that Theroux’s work as a screenwriter on films like Tropic Thunder, Iron Man 2 and Rock of Ages may have been why Sex and the City kept casting him as a writer — though all of those films actually came after his appearances on the show.

As Davis noted, Theroux is one of only a handful of actors who appeared on Sex and the City and And Just Like That in multiple roles. André de Shields appeared as a tap dancing instructor in a 2002 episode of the original series before guest starring as Dr. Nya Wallace’s (Karen Pittman) law school colleague in season 2 of Max’s reboot. Similar to Theroux, Peter Hermann had a small role in Sex and the City’s sixth season, playing a man with whom Charlotte half-heartedly flirts. Then in And Just Like That’s second season, he was given a more substantial storyline as a software engineer who dates Carrie.

Parker’s close friend Andy Cohen also appeared in Sex and the City twice, first as background actor at a gay club in season 4 and later as a shoe department sales assistant in season 6 — though it’s kinda fun to imagine Cohen was playing the same guy in both episodes.

Of his two Sex and the City roles, Theroux joked in 2021 that since the show was about ““girls who are dating all the time, you burn through every single male actor in New York.”

“They were like, 'Why don't you come back?' " he explained. "And their idea was that they would just shave my head. And they're like 'Voilà! total transformation.' "