Parker relished Moroccan film shoot

NEW YORK, May 24 (UPI) -- U.S. actress Sarah Jessica Parker says she loved shooting "Sex and the City 2" in Morocco even though it was, at times, "laborious and Herculean."

Parker, who lives in New York with her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, and their three children, worked in the desert locale after the production couldn't secure permission to film in Abu Dhabi where parts of the movie are set.

"It was laborious and Herculean, but it was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life," Parker told reporters at a recent press conference in New York.

"To live and work with this cast and that crew every single day to see the sun rise and set over our locations in the most far-flung places," the actress said. "To lie in a bed all day with these women, exhausted and laughing. To be on a camel with Kim Cattrall, which disobeyed all orders. It was indescribably wonderful to be so far away in this wonderfully foreign place and to have this incredibly cinematic experience. To be in the dunes of the Sahara for days and see things we will never see again, to smell things and eat things. Yes, it was hard, but we could not have done it anywhere else this way."

Among the drawbacks, however, were the absence of a bathroom on the set and proper medical attention when co-star Kristin Davis fell ill one day, Parker acknowledged.

"I didn't want anyone to know," Davis said, recounting with horror how she turned to Parker's brother, production assistant Aaron Forste, for help.

"So, I texted Aaron. I was like: 'Aaron, can you call the doctor. I can't get out of bed!' And then we didn't tell anyone until I was better. It was our little secret," Davis said.

"Apparently, if you're very sick and have a very serious intestinal issue, you just need warm milk," Parker joked.

"Stop, stop, stop! You don't have to tell them everything!" Davis said to Parker, laughing.

"I didn't say 'you,'" Parker chimed in. "I said you had a strange cough."

Co-starring Cynthia Nixon and Chris Noth, the film follows up where the 2008 movie "Sex and the City" and HBO series of the same name left off. The latest installment in the franchise is set to open in U.S. theaters this week.