Cynthia Nixon is nothing if not direct. Just like feisty, beloved Miranda, her character in the Sex And The City TV series, which is about to return to the big screen as a full-length feature film.

Nixon managed to make the shock news that she had left her man for a woman seem like the most normal thing in the world, at one stroke doing more for lesbian equality than any amount of hysteria could have. Jaws dropped when famous, glamorous Nixon’s girlfriend was revealed as limelight-shy education activist Christine Marinoni. But four years on, Nixon reveals why she’s still madly in love with her partner.

And as a down-to-earth anti-celebrity, who has been hailed for her performances on stage as well as screen, she describes how she and Christine bring up her two children (eleven-year-old daughter Samantha and five-year-old Charlie from her relationship with photographer Danny Mozes), enjoying ordinary life and love in the midst of extraordinary New York City.

Nixon also tells DIVA why Miranda and her relationships with Carrie, Charlotte and Samantha are so close to the hearts of millions of women, and confides some of the hazards of being a famous mum and doing nude scenes at 41. She attributes her improved clothing taste to SATC’s lesbian star stylist, Patricia Field, explains why she doesn’t mind ageing and, obviously happy, clearly finds being in a lesbian relationship one of the easiest and best things about her life.

At the start of the TV series of SATC, did you ever think you’d drawn the short straw with Miranda?
Not at all. She was great fun to play and very flashy in a certain way. She was opinionated, angry, bitter and kind of outrageous in her anger. I’d been acting for 20 years by the time the series started. I was very young for a long time; I had long blonde hair, and a kind of hippy quality. So I’d played a lot of easy-going waifs – kind of passive people. So this was very liberating to cut my hair off, dye it red and be aggressive.

Why is there such affection for these characters?
What’s great is how different they all are from each other. They all represent a different type. You see their strengths but also their weaknesses and foibles. The most important thing is to see how devoted they are to each other. They work as a unit.
Candace’s (Bushnell) book is wonderful, but it’s also very bleak. And dating can be very difficult. In a humorous way, and sometimes a sad way, we did show that.
But there was always this safety net (of friendship), which wasn’t in the book. That’s why it’s more cynical and dark.
But here, whatever happens, we’re all each for you, the viewer. People love the individual characters but they also love the group.

Did you miss her, or were you relieved when the series ended?
I would say whatever relief I felt was minimal. That was probably because we had a hard schedule and worked very long hours. We did the show for six years, which is a long time, but for many of those we only filmed for three or four months in the year, so it was a dream job. I knew it was coming to an end and had made my peace with that, but I certainly did miss it.

When the series finished, did you get offered lots of other ‘Miranda’-type parts?
No, it’s just not that smart or interesting to play the same part. I played her for a long time – and I loved it – but if I did another role that had loads in common with her, it would just be a watered-down version.

What drew you to agree to being in the film version of SATC?
It was exciting just to see what was happening with the characters again. There were so many surprising moments that you really couldn’t see coming. One of our writers from the series, who hadn’t read the script, came to one of the readings. It was great having her there, because about five or six times she went, ‘Uhhh’ (intake of breath). I think she was really shocked.
This time around the stakes seem high. It’s not just about, ‘How am I going to get this new bag that’s in demand?’ or ‘What am I going to do with this guy who snores?’ The issues are really gut-wrenching type issues.

How does it adjust to a different cultural time?
For the four of us, our own cultures have changed, but it doesn’t feel like a different New York. We’re older and, when the film starts, two of us are married, the way that we were at the end of the show. Charlotte now has a daughter. Carrie’s with Big and Sam is with her guy.
Even though we all come together, as happens when you get older, we all become more wrapped up in our men, our children and our lives. We’re like four queens in our queendoms, who then come together. But we don’t have the same kind of freedom just to drop everything and go get a cocktail or go shopping.

Would they discuss politics? Who would you vote for?
Miranda’s Hillary (Clinton) all the way; I voted for Obama myself.

Is there any truth to the rumours of on-set feuding?
When you work with people, you have disagreements. You figure it out and move on. People have preconceptions and biases about women getting together and becoming very catty and fighty. But that wasn’t the case.

Did you enjoy Miranda’s battle with Steve in the movie, and the hate-hate relationship with Brooklyn?
Yeah! That was a little bit of the old angry, cynical Miranda, not the softer, gentler Miranda. That’s always fun.

Now that you’re older, were you more or less reluctant to do nudity?
There is some nudity, and I think that we were somewhat more reluctant. You have to treat it like a Band-aid – just rip it off.

So there isn’t a tequila shot first?
No. My nude scene is with David Eigenberg (Steve), and I know him very well. We’ve done a lot of nude and non-nude scenes together – but of course it is a little nerve-racking.

Are they already writing a script for the next SATC movie?
I can’t imagine that’s possible, because Michael Patrick King, who wrote and directed this one, would be the one to write it. He currently has his hands full trying to finish this film!

Have you managed to stay friends with any of cast?
We all have different busy lives, but we call or email or see each other when we can.



What’s your favourite item from the film that you get to keep?
Maybe a pair of gold, strappy shoes. I think they’re Manolo’s.

Has having shared Miranda’s wardrobe affected your own sense of style?
I’d say so. First of all, there’s an expectation of what I’m supposed to wear in public, and then all these people are lending me clothes. I have a lot of clothes in my closet from the show, and soon from the movie. Having them makes a big impact on what you wear.

How similar would you say you and Miranda are style-wise?
There’s a little bit of overlap. There was a while in the series – Pat (Field) stopped, because it didn’t make any sense – where Miranda wore ethnic, flowy clothing at home, and that’s much more like me. The clothes are so beautiful that it’s made me a little dressier.
Also, I’m going to be 42 – at a certain point you don’t want to be wearing the flowing skirts and stuff. Maybe it’s helped me grow up a little.

Have you seen any of new shows inspired by SATC – The Lipstick Jungle or Cashmere Mafia?
No. I haven’t even seen Desperate Housewives!

You don’t watch TV a lot?
I have a TV set, but not cable. I just don’t like it. It dates from when my daughter was born. Maybe if my kids were out of the house, maybe when they’re grown... One of the things I hated about TV was that you had to watch whatever was on.
OK, now there’s Tivo, and everything, but even now, when I go to a hotel and turn on the TV, there’s still nothing on. All I ever watch is old movies.

How did you cope with news of you and Christine being splashed across the newspapers?
Certainly that was a wild, crazy thing that happened. The attention was like a fire – it flared very big and then died down to glowing embers. It was crazy being on the front cover of two papers, but the nice thing was that really there wasn’t much to say, once you’d said it. They called and asked us if it was true. We said yes, it was. And then people had a week or two talking about it.
Sometimes they had a hard time separating me from Miranda. They sent me a lot of articles, and wrote in to papers, saying things like, ‘I don’t understand; Miranda kissed a girl and didn’t like it. That’s Samantha; she has a relationship with a woman.’
Also, part of the initial hysteria was that because the four characters are seen as saying something about modern American womanhood, somehow, my decision was also saying something about modern American womanhood. But I was just saying something about me. People are so used to thinking of us as archetypes.

How does Christine cope with your fame? Certain parts of America aren’t as liberal as New York…
Living in New York, there are so many different kinds of people that it’s not an issue. We think about it, though, because we’re planning on going to see my grandma in Missouri. And we were just in Jamaica. At the airport in the evening, we saw the front page of the newspapers. There had been gay murders and gay-bashing, and there were some splinter groups that wanted to march. The main gay group [J-FLAG] was afraid that this might cause more violence. I’m very aware that in other places it’s so different, and it can be unpleasant and dangerous.

How important are friendships to you?
They’re very important. I grew up in New York, so I have an opportunity that a lot of people don’t have these days; I socialise with all the people I grew up with. A few are from elementary school, most are from high school. One of my oldest best friends was in the delivery room when both of my kids were born. It was tremendous to have her there.
I feel the same about the women on the show. We’d do whatever we needed to, whether that’s lending each other money, helping each other move or sitting for each other’s kids.



Do you think that the ideal man is a woman?
In terms of the particular person I’m with, I feel it is. She’s much more intuitive about what’s going on with me, much more willing to treat it like a partnership. We eat together, shop and cook together, raise children together – there’s more sense of the task at hand, and we both pitch in.
I’m in love with her because she’s her; it’s hard to know if I’d be in love with her if she were a man. If she were a man, would she still be this intuitive? Would she still be this devoted? Would she still be so on to me, and know what I need? I don’t know.

How did your kids adjust to the new relationship?
They were fine. My son’s very little. But again, it’s New York; my daughter has a gay uncle, her godmothers are lesbians. It’s a very multi-cultural world where gay people aren’t so shocking.

Have they been affected by your fame?
I think my son has a little sense of it. For my daughter, it’s a love-hate thing. It makes her feel a little important, but also it can be a drag. At her old elementary school, kids teased her and would crowd around me. That embarrassed her.

Does she have any acting genes?
She’s more of a writer, I think. But she’s also very much into fashion in the way she puts together her clothes, jewellery, fake swatches of coloured hair, hats and gloves. It’s really cool.

Does having New York as your hometown make it easier to cope with all the adulation?
New York is very good at doing that if you don’t isolate or insulate yourself. Not everything’s perfect here, by any means – like in the Middle Ages, the nobility would be on the horses, the common people on the ground, and if a knight ever fell off his horse, it would be a disaster – but in New York, everyone’s on the ground.
Even though there’s great economic disparity, there’s a sense here that we’re all in it together. The subway is a great leveller – or on the bus, or taking a cab, you’re walking down the street and interacting with people. In so many other places in the world, if you want to go anywhere you have to get into your car and are very isolated.

For an actor, is it easier to age gracefully there?
Definitely. It’s much easier because there’s a higher sense of reality as to what people should look like. In the theatre, it’s easier to do, but also in New York films.

Are you working on anything in theatre at the moment?
I’m going to do a play called Distracted next season. It’s about a woman whose child might or might not have ADD, and she’s trying to figure it out, and how to treat it. It reminds me a little of Marvin’s Room, if you ever saw that play. It’s a serious subject but it has a level of farce that makes it desperate. It’s a wonderful play.

How do you pamper yourself?
I take taxis. I try and have a few days per week when I don’t have anything scheduled, so I can have downtime. That’s really nice to do. On my perfect day off I like to be at home, tying up loose ends.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently? Or best movie you’ve seen?
I’m re-reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which I love. Movie? I saw a film that I took my kids to called How She Move. I really liked it.