'SATC' Star Jason Lewis Reveals Surprising Career Move 3 Years After Disappearing in Costa Rica

Jason Lewis is back.

The S-- and the City alum, 54, revealed he disappeared for three years by moving to Costa Rica to pen a nine-book fantasy series during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Thursday, May 28.

It's quite a change for the actor — who played Kim Cattrall’s lover Jerry “Smith” Jerrod on the HBO series from 2003-2004 and in the 2008 and 2010 movie sendups.

"Three trilogies," he explained. "[It's] closer to Lord of the Rings. It’s epic fantasy. It’s my own magic system based more in physics than the soft magic of casting spells."

Despite having no background in physics, Lewis has always been interested in how things work.

"I’ve just always been curious — I think from the first time the idea of atoms was introduced to me as a kid," he told the outlet. "I’ve paid attention to it over the years. I like looking in on what quantum theory is doing and [theoretical physicist Richard] Feynman had a really interesting theory that all of reality is just a single electron moving through spacetime at a bunch of different convergences. That’s something I kind of incorporated into the books. Or it’s kind of like string theory, where energy, in its ordering, becomes matter."

Still, he credits another franchise with inspiring the order of his work. He plans to release book No. 7 first.

"I think it started because of being a fan of Star Wars," Lewis said.

Although he sees his books in the Lord of the Rings realm, he credits another franchise with inspiring the order of his work. He plans to release book #7 first.

"I think it started because of being a fan of Star Wars and other stuff where I thought, 'Oh yeah, let’s just do this in reverse,'" Lewis said. "But as I developed the themes and the presentation and the story and how things get there, there are really three different arguments happening in the same space. The first trilogy is an idealistic tale. The middle one is when good intentions go terrible, when you become the monster so the monster can’t hurt you. And the last one is more of a redemption story. A more realistic worldview of doing our best with what’s handed to us."

After he started on the book series, the actor made what he referred to as a "'what do I need, what do I want' design-of-life list."

"I’ve never written novels before this, so I don’t have a bunch of feathers in my cap to lean on," he told the outlet. "I wanted a healthy lifestyle and access to good food. I surf, and being right next to a beach is very easy motivation for me to stay healthy. Sometimes you don’t want to go to the gym, but I always like to go play in the water. And I also wanted to learn Spanish."

Now, he said, "I pretty much write every single day."

"No publisher," he said. "I’ll take everything a step at a time."

The announcement was pre-empted.

On Thursday, May 21, he resurfaced on Instagram with a video shot while he is walking on a beach. He captioned it, "After three years, it was time."

"Three years ago, I went quiet," he said. "Not because I had nothing to say, but because I had something to do. The kind of creative work that doesn't leave room for much else. And I made my peace with that. It's the kind of work that needs to find its people, though. I'm still in it. But I'm far enough along that I felt like it was time to resurface and share what I've been doing."

He took to Instagram in hopes of reaching an audience.

"As much as possible I very much like to try and create a community and not just be in the broadcast of, 'Hey, check me out. Aren’t I awesome?'" he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "I want to try not to get lost in the idea of performative posting."