Cynthia Nixon

Spotlight By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Cynthia Nixon spent six years playing Miranda Hobbes on Sex and the City, a smart, self-assured, accomplished woman that sounds a lot like Nixon herself. Nixon always appears poised. She's fashionable, but not obsessed with fashion, and seems comfortable in her own skin. So when it came time to slip back into Miranda-mode for the hotly anticipated Sex and the City movie, the transition was almost effortless.

'I feel like we really know these characters very well and [director] Michael Patrick [King], who is writing it, he knows them very well and you put on the clothes, you dye your hair, you get back with these women; it's not too hard,' she says.

And if you think she's disappointed that Miranda doesn't get to be as glamorous as pals Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall), think again. 'She might have less of a glamour quotient then the other girls, but she is very, very based in reality and has a storyline in the movie that so many women can relate to,' Nixon says.

While she can't divulge details, she does reveal there were some very emotional scenes among the film's comedic moments. 'I feel like Michael Patrick gave her [Miranda] really great stuff and really real stuff and really painful stuff to do in the film and we tried to have her still have her sense of humor and still have a lighthearted moment every now and again so that it wasn't all just sterm and drung,' she says.

Was there anything she wished the movie had done differently' 'I wish there were slightly more of the four of us together, but I think it's very realistic that there is less of it because we all have these very different'Samantha's in LA, I'm married, Charlotte's married, Charlotte's got kids,' she explains. 'I feel like what happens now is that they have to go to very extreme lengths to get the four of us together, like we all have to run away to Mexico or somebody has to be getting married or there has to be a tremendous catastrophe that brings us all together.'

The four women of Sex and the City are all very different, from their personalities to their careers right down to their personal style. But despite all that, Nixon does truly believe that these people would be friends in real life. 'I find the people I gravitate towards are the people that have something that I wish that I had and I don't and I kind of want to hang out with them to learn how they got to be that way and maybe take some of that from them,' she says. 'But I also feel like one important thing to remember about the four of them is they're all friends through Carrie. And people say all different things about the three of us like we're really the brain, the heart and the libido of Carrie'that we're three aspects of her so I don't know if Samantha and Charlotte would ever be friends on their own and I don't even know if Charlotte and Miranda would ever be friends on their own but its like we each have a thing that Carrie wants to research more and see if she can steal and incorporate into her personality.'

And while Nixon does have some things in common with her character, she insists they way they talk and deal with people is entirely different. 'I feel like Miranda does the zingers and I sometimes do the zingers in real life but I feel like Miranda's whole rhythm and tone is very different from mine and she's much more likely to put people on the spot,' she says. 'I'm just the first person in line to let somebody off the hook.'

The series' rabid fan base hasn't diminished a bit since it ended in 2004. As soon as the movie began filming on the streets of New York City, crowds lined up for days just to catch a glimpse of the fab four. 'Yes, it was amazing,' Nixon says. 'Literally hundreds of people and not just people who would happen to be passing by and stop and watch for a few minutes, but people who would plan their days around where we were filming and come and watch for 8, 10, 12 hours'driving to work in the morning and they would have on the radio where we were filming. I mean I'm not a blog person but I hear just endless chatter and even in the newspapers there would be a picture and on Entertainment Tonight and that kind of thing. It was like there didn't seem to be any limit to the appetite for information about the movie.'

With all the hype surrounding the film, the cast and crew began to worry about its precious secrets leaking to the public. They tried their best to keep things under wraps, but there were some details that just couldn't stay hidden for long. 'We were really worried about it particularly when they were broadcasting dialogue on certain shows here and in England and all over,' Nixon says. 'It's also hard when Carrie is walking around in a wedding dress. What are you gonna say' But I think we've done a pretty good job amazingly so far. We're not there yet, we've got another month to go and who knows what'll happen and there's been all this controversy over this rumor that someone dies in the movie. I think we should just start three or four more of those. That might really help.'

When the series ended, it was a very sad parting of ways for the cast and crew. Did wrapping the film have that same emotional effect' 'I think it was easier,' she says. 'When we said goodbye to the show it was saying goodbye to the crew we had with us for 6 years and we knew maybe there would be a film, but we knew we'd never do that series again so it really felt like when you graduate from college or something and you really say goodbye. Whereas this, we all'well except for Kim who still had stuff to film'we all finished en masse so it wasn't like, oh say goodbye to that person and say goodbye to that person. We also wrapped in California which made it feel less emotional somehow. But also it had largely to do with the fact that it was its own entity and we weren't with this whole crew of people. We had some of our original crew but not like we had when we wrapped the series.'

Much like a fan would, Nixon has seen most of the show's episodes more than once and doesn't hesitate to pick out a clear favorite among them all. 'I love the episode where Miranda's mother dies and I don't only love it for Miranda's storyline,' she says. 'One of my favorite things about the show is the way they would take a theme and wind each of the girls' through it and I think it's so fantastic the three different ways the other women deal with the death of Miranda's mother and deal with the subject of death in general.'

So what about Nixon's perspectives on life' Sex and the City presents a lot of views on age, so what does she think the 20s, 30s and 40s are all about' 'I feel like in some ways I'm doing things backwards,' she says. 'I feel like in my 20s I was like working, working, working. And then my 30s were about having kids. And I feel like now my 40s are more about'my girlfriend likes to travel and so we take vacations now and we go places. I feel like you have to do certain things in your life and maybe you do them earlier and if you don't do them early you kind of backtrack and do them. I feel like my 40s are more about breathing. When I had my 40th birthday I invited so many people and it made me really say I'm at what will probably be the midpoint of my life and every decision that I make now I want to be making it consciously and choosing it.'

Seems like her 40s are serving her well so far!