And Just Like That’s Cynthia Nixon on her fave SATC era and Miranda’s approach to labels: ‘I’m not sure how she’d identify’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Hi Cynthia! We are now on our eleventh Sex and the City era…

Eleventh?!

Six seasons of SATC, three seasons of And Just Like That…, and two movies! What is your favourite era and why?

Oh, my goodness. I have no idea! I guess I loved Miranda in the original series, when we started to see the cracks in the armour. That, for me, from my own little personal point of view, ushered in a whole new world. That Miranda, when she bought an apartment of her own, and it raised all these issues. Like, if I’m doing this, am I always going to be alone? Am I going to die alone? Is no one going to find me? Is the cat going to eat my face? She went into that with the panic attacks. It felt like we went from this person who was totally cynical, always with a quip, always with a cynical “men suck” point of view. All of a sudden, you saw this really vulnerable underbelly. Of just sort of blind, existential panic open up, and she ends up in the emergency room. And of course, the person she calls is Carrie.

Season two.

Season two.

We see Carrie and Samantha texting a lot this season. Do you hope, as I do, that Miranda and Samantha are texting this season? That maybe Miranda is reaching out to Samantha for some insight and support as she explores her sexuality? 

[Laughs] No! I don’t!

Fair enough. The show obviously has such a rich history of LGBTQ representation. Hasn’t always been perfect, but I can’t overstate its importance. You’re still adding to it now. As a character but also as an executive producer, why is it still important to be adding to that?

As you say, back in the day, it certainly wasn’t perfect. But it was really great to have these compelling gay characters. To have Stanford and Anthony, gay men who amazingly wound up together but were polar opposites. But also, Miranda being mistaken for a lesbian very early on, Charlotte day-tripping with the power lesbians, Charlotte’s cross-dressing and the drag kings and all that stuff. Stanford and Carrie’s belated prom at the LGBTQ centre [The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center]. All of that stuff was so great. A lot of it was comedic, because that was sort of, I think, what was allowed then, frankly. But I feel like now we have jumped; we have such a broader range of sexuality. Trans characters, non-binary characters, lesbians, bisexual. People like Miranda – I’m not sure how Miranda labels herself of identifies. But I like that Miranda can fully invest in dating women and non-binary people but not dismiss or abuse or denigrate her past very full, rich history with men. I like that.

Have you had a great response from people who come out later in life, or were inspired to by your character?

Yes. I mean, young women in particular tell me all the time that it’s a lot for the parents to hear that they’re lesbians, but when they can point to a woman on Sex and the City, as also being a lesbian, the parents get a modicum of calming down.

We get to explore some of the supporting characters family backstories when we still know so little about the original characters family backstories. 

Yes.

We do actually know more about yours than the other girls.

Yes.

We met your sister…

Well, remember, bizarrely, we met Charlotte’s brother once!

Does it become more challenging as it goes on to resist that urge to explore all that, and do you ever fill in the blanks yourself?

Darren Starr, I guess, on Beverley Hills 90210 I guess – I never saw it, but I guess either than and/or Melrose Place where they’re focusing on such young people, and the parents were such a factor in those shows. Such an integral part of them. So, by the time he got to us, he was like, ‘I’m so sick of seeing the parents of grown people. We are not going to have any talk of parents. We’re not going to show any parents.’ There have been a few very small exceptions. I think we learn what we need to know about Miranda’s sister, and her life in Philadelphia, the class they are, the church-going, that kind of thing. But I feel like, for these people, so much, their families are their created families. Whether families they’ve given birth to and made or married, or their friendships. That’s who their family is. Not the parents they hail from.

And Just Like That… S3 launches on 30 May exclusively in the UK on SKY and NOW with episode one, followed by one new episode airing each week.