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Our friendship onscreen is similar in many ways to our friendship off, which is not typical.
It was a joyful one onscreen.
I knew before we started shooting that Willie was sick.
He asked me to keep that confidential, and I honored that.
It was fraught for me to know that he was sick with that particular, terrifying diagnosis.
I couldnt share that with anybody.
Anytime there was downtime, I sat with him and talked with him.
He really was a raconteur, a famously gifted storyteller.
What we called for many monthsthe Black Eventwas particularly difficult for me and for all of us.
At that point, he shared with his fellow cast that he was sick.
He intended and wanted to complete the entire season.
And for Willie to have to leave, you knew that it was serious.
He found a place in a business that he wanted to be in and loved.
He almost never said no to a project.
He was like me; he was a curious, insatiable person.
He had no regrets.
What a deservedly gorgeous place to be.
Willie Garson, hes one of our clients.
He wanted to hear about it, and that always really touched me.
He just went out and got it.
We were drinking we obviously werent drinking real alcohol, but it gave it a festive air.
Hed been, as he always was, so lighthearted and funny and engaging.
Its so enormous and so scary and painful.
It is an extra burden to carry it and not reveal it to anybody.
I wish we could have had more of that this season.
I was waiting around, and Willie started talking to me and immediately made me laugh.
He created such a sense of ease around himself.
In 1997, we both ended up at the HBO office testing forSex and the City.
Willie and I talked and laughed.
He told me about his friendship with Sarah.
Luckily, we both got our parts on the show.
Willie was friends with almost everyone in our industry.
There was always a lot of energy when Willie worked.
He was quick-witted and so smart and insightful.
I look back now, and I feel like he was talking about our whole wild ride together.
It is gut-wrenching to think of all that he was carrying at that point.
Of course, he was playing Stanford Blatch, an odd name for a character.
The first thing I was aware of was Willies sly, stealth humor.
Never in your face, always something you had to lean in to hear.
And it was always worth the lean in.
And his grin his knowing, secret grin.
Those are the qualities I pulled into Stanford from my entry-level knowledge of Willie.
He runs with a martini in his hand something I wrote specifically for Willie, just something so silly.
Run like youre a little girl!
Run like youre on fire!
Willie loved his camera time.
He just kept going and lit up that whole soundstage.
It was a scene to explain his absence in the series.
Every part of it.
Patricia Field (Sex and the Citycostume designer)
I had a wonderful relationship with Willie.
He loved his wardrobe more than anyone.
It was a big, colorful, expressive wardrobe, which suited his personality.
Once he saw and understood my ideas, he agreed with them.
He really gave me all the freedom I wanted.
The suits were colorful, and they were couture.
They were beautifully made.
Thats when I met him.
I loved him right away.
Hes hilarious and biting and viciously funny.
We connected right away.
And then, you know, we hated each other on film, and then we got married!
I was lucky because he came before me, he was the original on the show.
It put us together.
Plus, Liza Minelli married us!
That was a thrilling day, marrying Willie on camera.
It was very emotional.
Both my sisters walked me down the aisle.
And then I remember watching Liza performing.
Willie and I were standing together and clapping and loving it.
She sang a song off-camera, a Cole Porter song called Every Time We Say Goodbye.
She sang that for all the extras and the crew and the actors.
Ill never forget that.
Working with him onAnd Just Like That …was magnificent because hes just on his game.
Its not going to be the same.
I got to set the day after he passed, and I just broke.
Im sure she had her moment the day before when it happened when she was told.
I mean, we all did.
It was very hard that day.
But we all huddled together and loved each other hard and kept going.
We did spend time on the show together, but rarely in the same scene.
I envy those who spent many of their days with him.
Laughter was part of what Willie brought to the table.
His name will always bring a smile to my face.
For even in the limited time I spent with him, to know Willie was to love him.
Evan Handler (Harry Goldenblatt)
Willies work as Stanford is the kind of work I love.
Sex and the Citywas the first thing that brought us together, but it didnt bring us together personally.
Almost all my material was with Kristin, and only occasionally were there big scenes involving everyone.
Can we talk about some of that?
Then I went, You know, not reallythatmany.
And the interviewer laughed and laughed.
And then he kept asking me questions about the gay characters that I played.
And I kept saying, I cant really even think of one.
I didnt know how to handle it.
I said, Im sorry, but I think you have me confused with another cast member.
You know Willie Garson plays the gay guy on this, right?
He just crumbled live on TV.
What else was I going to do?
So I felt bonded to Willie by something that had nothing to do with an actual connection between us.
And then it was a matter of days before he disappeared completely.
Willie told me about his diagnosis and the fears he had about it for his son.
I really cant believe the burden that Willie was carrying.
I oddly became closer to Willie through his sharing that information with me at the very end.
He is sadly missed.
These conversations have been edited for length and clarity.
