‘And Just Like That…' the internet wants to make background actor Christopher Clark a star

CNN

5 days ago

People in entertainment
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Technically, Christopher Clark was a background performer on a recent episode of 'And Just Like That…,' but he doesn't mind if you refer to him as 'the extra extra.'
That's because the actor – who is a superfan of the HBO Max series and the original that spurred it, 'Sex and the City' – is getting tons of online love thanks to his decision to go big and not go home with his performance. (HBO Max and CNN are owned by the same parent company.) He couldn't be more delighted about it.
'It's funny because we shot this a year ago,' he told CNN in an interview on Thursday. 'And I've had the pleasure of working on this show a few times and it is always a dream.'
Clark appears in the final scene of Season 3, episode 9 of 'And Just Like That…,' titled 'Present Tense,' in which Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) meets with her beloved girlfriends at a busy bar-restaurant after an intense interaction with Aidan Shaw (John Corbett).
A clip focusing on Clark in the scene, posted to Instagram on Wednesday, was captioned 'The Meryl Streep of background actors steps into her light' and co-shared by influential 'Sex and the City'-focused social media account @everyoutfitonsatc.
The post, which features Clark acting head to toe, has already garnered over 20,000 likes.
'This character needs to keep popping up at bars and restaurants the girls frequent,' one person wrote on the Instagram post. 'Coincidentally.'
The official social media account for HBO Max commented, 'I couldn't help but wonder: Did I just see a star be born?' (HBO declined to comment further for this story when contacted.)
Some even lip read what Clark was saying during the scene, especially enjoying his telling another background actor, 'You're bad! You're so bad!'
Ordinarily, background actors are not supposed to audibly speak in such scenes, and are instead instructed to pantomime, but those present for that particular shoot were made aware that this one would have a voice over so the actors were free to do and say what they wanted as long as they stayed in character. The scene was eventually overlaid with Parker's lines along with a moody soundtrack courtesy of Taylor Swift (the track is 'How Did It End?' off her most recent album).
'At one point they said, 'Big events have just happened in the show and the girls are getting together,' but I had no idea there'd be this sad Taylor Swift song and it'd be this emotional moment,' Clark said. 'So I'm just there sitting perched at the end of the bar, kiki-ing, having the time of my life.'
If he looks familiar to viewers of the show, that's because Clark, who works as a realtor in his day job, has not only been in a few 'And Just Like That…' episodes, but also in the feature-length 2010 film 'Sex and the City 2.'
On 'And Just Like That…,' he's repeatedly popped up in the same room with Carrie, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Lisa Todd Wexley (Nicole Ari Parker) and was a cater waiter in a scene in Charlotte's home.
The characters now feel like family to him.
'In my own (delusional) mind I am there with them because these characters mean so, so much to me,' said Clark, whose late dog was named Bradshaw for Parker's character and whose current pup, Truman Jones, is named in honor of legacy 'Sex and the City' character Samantha Jones played by Kim Cattrall.
Understandably, Clark would not be unhappy if this unexpected star turn led to more work.
Commentors suggested that they would enjoy seeing him in a spinoff of some type, and he has some ideas. Since the character Seema Patel played by Sarita Choudhury is a realtor on the show and Clark is one in real life, he envisions being part of her storyline.
'Maybe we have a falling out, but the girls take my side,' he suggested by way of some TV-ready drama.
Until then, Clark hopes to keep working on the show and watching episodes with a Cosmopolitan cocktail in hand and his beloved pup at his side.