Sarah Jessica Parker Talks Series 'Divorce,' Her Love for New York City

"Divorce" premieres this Sunday night on HBO.

ByABC News
October 5, 2016, 9:51 AM

— -- It's been 12 years since we said goodbye to Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in "Sex and the City."

The actress is back in the latest HBO series, "Divorce." She stars as Frances, a mother of two who begins to reassess her life and her strained relationship with her husband, played by Thomas Haden Church.

"I think it's important that she not be Carrie Bradshaw," Parker said this morning on "GMA." "I got to play that character for 12 sublime years written by extraordinary writers and telling a very specific story and so...I did find another woman who is equally as compelling, extremely different, complicated. Her life choices have been radically different than Carrie's and I think it's a story no less appealing though it's very different."

Parker, who is also the show's executive producer, said she joined the project years ago after observing people close to her that were in long-term, committed relationships.

"I recognized that there are so many stories about the American marriage and the American commitment," she said. "We know people who have contemplated divorce, survived divorce, didn't survive divorce, children making divorce that much more complex and painful, people that have contemplated affairs, had affairs, the marriages survived affairs despite, you know the marriages didn't survive and so, I think these are all stories that are happening."

"Divorce" is filmed in the suburbs of Manhattan, the city that Parker has been synonymous with throughout her career.

"I think the memories that you can make, the things that still surprise me, the yet explored street corner neighborhood," Parker said of living in New York. "I'm in love with this city as much as I was the day I arrived, so many years ago...but I think those of us who choose to live here are sort of involuntarily pulled toward the promise, and a lot of what we are feeling in this room is what the city gives us so I have endless memories and looking forward to more."

"Divorce" premieres this Sunday night on HBO.