We’ve known her as lovable and witty Miranda on Sex and the City for over a decade. Now, she’s ready for new risks and new goals as the same old New York girl — and she’s not holding back.
Wanted: a beautiful, brainy woman with a sense of self and an appreciation for life to illustrate a pragmatic, hyperactive and intelligent female on a new cable show called Sex and the City. As millions of viewers were to find out, the series focused on four Manhattan professional women and brought to light socially-relevant issues, along with the latest-breaking fashion trends and the true meaning of friendship. It also coined phrases and propelled the boom of iconic drinks (Post-It-Note Breakup, Flirtini or Cosmopolitan, anyone?). Enter theatre-trained Cynthia Nixon, a native New Yorker, who embodied the very essence of Miranda Hobbes’s high-powered lawyer persona and immediately became an integral part of the Sex quartet. “I’m busy but I feel I have a lot more downtime than Miranda,” says Nixon during a torrential downpour obscuring the Manhattan skyline near her Upper West Side home. “What’s great about my job is I don’t go to work all day, every day like Miranda, who has to leave her young son in the care of a nanny. When I am working I can have really crazy hours, but I have weeks and months where I can be home and take my kids to school.” Public schools, that is. “I never ever considered private schools,” says the public education advocate. “I felt my kids lived in a bubble enough and I didn’t want that for them.”
Dressed in a black sweater and jeans, Nixon is cheerier than her TV and big-screen persona. The naturally blonde actress’s hair is not particularly as red at the moment, but when it is in full Miranda mode, “I like to wear a lot of greens,” she says. “I would be hard-pressed to find a colour I don’t like except maybe yellow, although that says more about my skin tone than my personality. I’m a fairly lively person but I’m a girl from New York so I like my black. We do like our black in New York.” So what is that strong bond between black and The Big Apple? “I think we’re not afraid to be serious here,” muses Nixon. “Also, in New York, we’re very, very functional and black is a very functional colour. It doesn’t show the dirt – you can dress it up or dress it down. Black is just very versatile.”
With the release of Sex and the City 2, Nixon has settled into a comfortable place in her life where she is able to accept the sex symbol label put on her. “You know, I didn’t really used to think of myself as sexy,” she admits with a laugh. “I have started to more lately, though, and it’s partly being on the show, and it’s partly due to getting older.” Apparently turning 40 proved to be a pivotal point in Nixon’s life, where she said she was suddenly able to look forward and think about the things she wanted to do in life. “Even though that year marked an abstract line in the sand, it really felt like a turning point, the same way as graduating from college. It felt real and like I was entering a phase of my life where I could pick and choose a little more and have the confidence to do so. I am more proactive now and less reactive.” Singing proved to be on the top of her to-do-past-40 list. “I know it might sound minor and silly but I started taking singing lessons because it was something I always wanted to do. I asked myself then, ‘What am I waiting for?’ I tell myself now to risk a lot more and it’s great to be taking them.” 
At 44, Nixon has embraced life and looks forward to other ventures, including a long, hot summer that will be spent at her recently purchased Long Island home where she will be planting an organic garden with the help of her 13-year-old daughter, Samantha, and partner, Christine Marinoni. “Samantha is very excited about growing food and composting,” says Nixon, who also has a seven-year-old son, Charlie, from her previous 15-year relationship with junior high crush Danny Mozes. “Honestly, my daughter is trying to instill in us the merits of living an eco-friendly life. She only wants us to buy organic foods, organic clothing and Fair Trade chocolates. She won’t allow me to get her any new clothes and will only buy used or handmade items.” Included in the family’s “green” awareness is Samantha’s vegetarianism, which Nixon has embraced since her breast cancer diagnosis in October 2006 when a tiny lump was found in her right breast. Nixon was keenly aware of her predisposition for the disease since her mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor. “I started getting mammograms at 35 instead of 40 because my mother’s first breast cancer was pre-menopausal. Early detection is number one,” Nixon says on the message she would like to get out to women. “Don’t be afraid to get mammograms; be responsible about your own health and be diligent. If you do get a worrying result, try not to leap to the worst place. Yes, it’s scary to get that diagnosis and I made some changes in my life – dietary and exercise – but I caught my cancer very early on. I had a lumpectomy and also radiation.”
She also has eschewed animal fats since her nutritionist suggested that it’s these particular fats which can increase cancer probabilities, not eating meat per say. “I was a very big meat eater and still love making a pot roast for my parents, which I won’t eat. So when I talked to my nutritionist, I told her of my love for cheese and that I could not ever give that up, but I have completely omitted chicken and meat. I eat a bit of fish, and that’s it.” Her protein substitutions include nuts, cheese, fish and leafy greens, while severely limiting tofu because of its estrogen content. Days usually begin with a bowl of oatmeal topped with flaxseed and wheat germ, “some agave for sweetener, cinnamon and brown sugar. Then I have my daily fresh juice of carrots, apple, kale and ginger.” Salads topped with dried cranberries or cherries are usual lunch fare, while dinner can be pasta or fish. Supplements include a multivitamin, vitamin D and acidophilus. “But if I’m longing for some comfort food, it could be a simple grilled cheese sandwich.” Gyrotonics, iyengar yoga and an occasional slow burn class make up her weekly exercise routines – some she attends with friends and some on her own.
While the Sex shoe fetish has given way to more designer bags and accessories than you can shake a trust fund at, Nixon admits the underlying theme of the franchise is the importance of enduring friendships. “One of the things about these women is that they love each other, they admire each other. But the four are very, very different. When they were younger, they had a lot of ideological battles and I see that is very healthy and good in a friendship as long as it doesn’t go too far. I think you can broaden your world view and also figure out more clearly what you actually think. There’s nothing like defining your vision in having to defend it. I’m still friendly with some of the same nerdy high school kids from decades ago so I guess that means I’m a nerd, too – and I’m comfortable saying that.” She’s not as forthcoming about her latest shoe count. “I don’t have as many as Carrie,” she sheepishly says, “but I have a lot – maybe 130 pairs.”
With more than 20 years of acting experience behind her, Nixon has become something of an expert at putting anxiety, panic, stoicism and pragmatism to good use. At age 11, she auditioned for Mom, the Wolfman and Me, which was the beginning of her acting career.
An ABC AfterSchool Special and Little Darlings soon followed. Since then, Nixon has played everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to schoolmistress Jean Brodie. In 2006, she won the Tony Award for best actress for Rabbit Hole, and received an Emmy nomination for her role as a demented killer on Law & Order: SVU. Nevertheless, Nixon has raised her profile significantly as Miranda Hobbes, and even took home an Emmy in 2003 for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series. “Even though I get recognized the most for Miranda, I’m not much like her. She’s more confrontational than I am. I think even though my manner is very different than Eleanor Roosevelt’s, I feel I have a lot in common with her,” she muses over her past roles and personal parallels. “I definitely feel I was unlike Jean Brodie so that role was a big challenge. And I recently played a mom whose son has ADD so the tone of the play was very manic and multi-tasking all the time. I don’t feel that’s me all the time, but I definitely could slip into the role easily.”
Whatever her strategy, it seems to be working. She’s looking forward to a suburban summer and other projects in the works. Maybe a biography some day? “Gosh, I wouldn’t have a clue about a title,” she giggles, but actually takes a moment to mull over the idea. “So much of who I am is embodied in being from New York. My dad was a Texan and he always said that paradoxically Texas and New York have a lot in common. They’re both home to very oversized personalities; they’re both accepting of eccentricity and individuality, and it’s how you identify yourself before race, ethnicity or anything. I’m a New Yorker. So how about New York Girl for a title?” Then she laughs. “But then who’d play me in the movie?”
by Bonnie Siegler • Photography by Elisabeth Caren
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