The Sex and The City movie puts her back with the old gang for the first and possibly last time in four years, but the details of their adventure - and what they're wearing - are being kept strictly under wraps.

Her cosmopolitan alter ego Carrie has always walked on the wild side, but the actress insists her choice of attire is more toned down in real life.

And she plays down claims that she is a role model for women.

"I just got lucky to be seen in a show that is popular for women and empowers women," Sarah Jessica told Sunday Life.

"If there is anything I wish I could really convince young women of, it is that they don't have to be like everybody else.

"But then again at times, there is great comfort in fitting in and feeling part of a peer group or part of a community."

"My personality is actually more conservative than Carrie's.

"It's flattering to be called a role model and style icon, but it's something I really don't think about.

"I do love clothes and fashion but I don't go out to be anything other than myself. I think Carrie is more the style icon, not me.

"I've never been a shopper - despite what everyone might think! I've never been somebody that used my leisure time to shop; the last thing I would think to do with my limited free time is to go shopping rather than be with my son. It's just not the way my life functions.

"A couple of people have come over to our house recently and they've looked in my closet and they have said, 'Wow, you're right! You do not have a lot of clothes!'

"I have a lot of sweaters for some reason, but I'm not a shopper so I don't have a lot of clothes. It's weird. But I don't need a lot of clothes and when I'm working I wear the same thing every day anyway.

"Outside of being a parent, my work as an actor is my priority. Being an actor is my job, that's the job I wanted my whole life. Being an actor is a privilege."

By her own admission she doesn't conform to the Hollywood ideal of beauty, but Sarah earned herself an army of fashion loving fans anyway.

Flitting between family (she and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, have a young son, James), film, a personal fashion line and her own fragrance, Sarah reveals that it's a fear of poverty that makes her work so hard.

"It's hard for me to say no to new opportunities. It's hard for me to say no just in general because it's as if I was raised in the depression - I'm just afraid of poverty and lack of opportunity. I wasn't brought up wealthy and I watched my mother being very clever with money to keep it all together.

"The fragrance and the clothing line allow me to say no to other things.

"It's a competitive and difficult industry and rife with landmines, but it's a great way to learn another career.

"I still get to work as an actor and I am also a mother and I insist on being involved with my son every step of the way.

"I just have one child and I'm making it sound like old Mother Hubbard, but one or seven they all need the same kind of attention and they deserve it."

Sarah insists that she is not building a business empire.

"I just love creating fragrances. And I love the philosophy and manifesto of my clothing company - of creating affordable clothing for women regardless of who they are, where they are, what size they are, what background they are, what ethnic background."

And with her character Carrie's love of clothes and Sarah Jessica's own popular sense of style, a clothing line was inevitable.

"Well, I do love clothes and I love the artistry of building beautiful clothing and I loved the idea of quality affordable clothing for everybody.

I have been involved for better or worse all the way; this is my line, my designs. I know people have done clothing lines and there have been varying degrees of involvement, but my nature is such that I don't know how to not be completely involved!"

Sarah Jessica (42) reveals that it was working with Patricia Field on Sex and the City that changed her personal approach to fashion.

" Since I did the series, and the film, I've become much more aware of fashion. I've really grown to love fashion. I didn't pay that much attention to clothes before, but now I feel I still have to measure up in a certain way to Carrie's tastes."

"But my closet is not what you might think. I don't have a massive closet. Even as Carrie, I only ever kept the clothes that were specifically built for me - never the stuff that was loaned.

"I tried to give a lot away for charity because it was an embarrassment of riches really.

"All the Manolos were unbelievable, and a lot of incredible purses and some incredible gowns were built for me."

She may be a style icon, but Sarah Jessica admits that she is not a conventional beauty. And she definitely doesn't see herself as sexy.

"I just accept how I am and try to make the most of that - a good moisturiser and vitamins are essential.

" I've always been insecure about my looks. Every day when I leave the house, I have to think twice about how I look.

"I know I'm going to run into the paparazzi and worry about whether I want to wear my favourite baggy pants or what my hair looks like.

"I don't think I'm sexy. In SATC I play a woman who men respond to sexually or in a sexual way. But it's not like no-one knew who I was yesterday and today I'm like Pamela Anderson or something.

"People don't think of me that way and I've never been what Hollywood considers beautiful and it doesn't bother me one little bit."