Only in Hollywood
‘Sex and the City’ star talks on coming out, breast cancer
By Ruben V. Nepales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:04:00 05/09/2008
LOS ANGELES, California—Cynthia Nixon, who is back with those fabulous girls in the big screen version of “Sex and the City,” has some serious things to say about her life since their beloved TV series ended in 2004.
Speaking to reporters in a press con in New York last weekend, the actress, who plays lawyer Miranda Hobbes, reflected about her coming out and disclosure of her lesbian relationship with education activist, Christine Marinoni, and her successful battle against breast cancer.
Due to a review embargo imposed by the film’s distributor, we cannot comment much about “Sex and the City” until it’s close to the release date. Let’s just say for now that the many fans of the show, which also stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis, will be in for a lot of fun.
Below are excerpts of our interview with the Emmy- and Tony-winning actress:
One of the funny scenes in the movie involves, shall we say—without giving away a lot of details—the sight of pubic hair.
They made what I guess would be called a merkin, which is like a pubic hair wig, which they taped on me.
In the TV series, the sex scenes usually involved Samantha, Kim Cattrall’s character. In the movie, you have a nude sex scene with David Eigenberg, who plays your husband. How comfortable were you doing that scene?
Samantha is far more athletic but Miranda had her fair share of nudity and sex scenes in the show. People feel that I’m very naked in the movie. I thought that David Eigenberg would cover me up, that the cinematographer and Michael Patrick would protect me and that my makeup people were going to make me all “glisten-y.” I didn’t feel so naked but obviously, I was wrong.
The TV show and the film are odes to New York City. Let’s turn the tables by asking—what don’t you like about New York?
I don’t like how expensive the rents are. Everything that I don’t like about New York is related to that—how very expensive it has always been—but now it’s out of control.
Twenty-five years from now, how do you think the show will be remembered?
I hope they will remember that it was the time when the idea of being a single woman changed from that of a tearful, lonely spinster waiting by the telephone to a woman who was in charge of her own economic and sexual destiny, who was not afraid to go out and buy herself an apartment, or have a child on her own terms, or spend a ludicrous amount of money on a handbag.
You came out and revealed your lesbian relationship in 2004. How do you think the public’s perception of the show would have been affected had you come out in, let’s say, 1999?
But I was not with a woman in 1999.
Can you share with us the context of your coming out? When exactly did you come out?
I started dating my girlfriend (Christine Marinoni) in January of 2004. The press got wind of it around the time I won the Emmy, which was September of 2004. They asked me the question and I said, “Yes, that is true. I am romantically involved with this woman and I’m not really going to talk about it because you all need to calm down.” There was a lot of attention and paparazzi in front of my apartment and her parents’ home. It was crazy.
In terms of my sexual orientation changing, I don’t really feel that it did. I don’t feel any different. I don’t feel like there was some deep hidden part of myself or my sexuality that I wasn’t aware of. I felt like I have been with men all my life. I had never met a woman that I had fallen in love with before—but when I did, it didn’t seem so strange. There are people who feel like they’re only gay. Then there are people who feel like they’re only straight. But to me, it’s not so strange.
Do you define yourself as a bisexual?
I don’t define myself. I find myself a woman in love with another woman.
One of the crucial lines in the film was when you told someone that he was crazy to be getting married. In real life, would you consider getting married?
I always avoided marriage in the past. I was always wary of it. I also thought of marriage as a thing that is expected of a woman, so I was rebelling a bit. My girlfriend and I can’t get married. Not in New York but if it (same-sex marriage) does become legal, I think we would (get married). I feel that, first of all, it’s something that she’s interested in. It was not something that my boyfriend was ever interested in.
You also recently revealed that you had breast cancer in the last couple of years.
A year and a half.
Can you talk about it and how you got through it all?
In October 2006, I had a mammogram that showed I had a very small bit of cancer in my right breast. I had an operation. I had what’s called a lumpectomy, which is a little generous. It was kind of more of a bite-ectomy. I had radiation for six and a half weeks. I have to say that it wasn’t really a happy thing to learn this. But my mother who is alive and well had breast cancer twice. The first time was 30 years ago. I admire the way she dealt with it. She was very down to earth and low key about it. Far from hearing it as a death sentence, she heard it as a health problem—that if you treat it, your chances are very good that it will go away. That’s how I received the news as well.
So you are now the spokeswoman for…?
The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. They have races all over America and Canada, but they have a major one in Washington, DC, on June 7, which I am hosting. I am doing a lot of stuff around Mother’s Day.
In October, I’ll do a lot more because that’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I have a good and instructive story to tell—if you have breast cancer and you catch it when it has not yet moved outside the breast, your chances of surviving are 98 percent.
The only thing you have to be afraid of as a woman is if you don’t get your regular mammograms. If you’re afraid of getting a mammogram and keep putting it off, that’s the thing to be worried about, because the cancer may have advanced past the point when they can stop it.
“Sex and the City” appeals to women of all ages, but particularly to young women, so I will say one more thing—they’re finding more malignant cancers in younger women, so we also have to talk to our doctors and rethink the age that we’re getting mammograms.
It’s advised that women in general, who don’t have a history of cancer in their families, should start their mammograms at age 40. I’ve been having mammograms since I was 35 because of my mother’s history. I was 40 when they found the cancer in my mammogram. So it’s very important to have a mammogram regularly and early if your doctor thinks it’s appropriate.
How did you react when a magazine (Maxim) named Sarah Jessica Parker as the Unsexiest Woman?
I heard about it after it happened. I am sure it was unpleasant for her. Sarah is one of the sexiest women I know. Her body is sexy, her face is beautiful, and her sense of fashion is great. She has a sense of joy and spontaneity.
Frankly, Sarah is one of the more perfect people in the world. Sometimes, when you’ve got it so together, people get envious and like to throw a stone or two.
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com, and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
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