Kim Cattrall rejected `SATC` role thrice

London: Her role as man-eater Samanth Jones in `Sex And The City` has made her a household name but actress Kim Cattrall says she rejected the part thrice because she did not think she could pull it off.

The actress had turned 40 when she was offered the role in the TV series, based on the lives of four best friends in the Big Apple, a news daily reported. "I turned it down three times. I`d just turned 40. Or was it 41? Oh, who cares? Whatever age I`d turned, I thought, `I can`t do this. I can`t pull it off.`," said Cattrall. "I felt that way because there had never been a character on TV as free as Samantha, and for an actress it can be quite daunting to play someone who has no fear of doing exactly what she wants, when she wants, and with whom she wants. But then I remembered something Jack Lemmon once said to me, `Kid, if something scares you, you should do it.` So I decided to take the part," the actress added. The 53-year-old star, however, does not like the term cougar, a woman who seduces younger men. Cattrall, who has been married and divorced three times, may have helped coin the term through her sex-addict alter-ego but it offends her. "That`s predatory behaviour and I don`t consider myself a predator. I feel that I`m the pursued." The actress feels that playing a character who wants everything on her terms has had a positive effect on her own life. "I don`t have to pretend to be someone I`m not any more. When I went on dates when I was younger, I always showed the person the side of me I thought they wanted to see. It was more about pleasing the man than about what I wanted. These days I`m much more relaxed about that stuff," said Cattrall. PTI