The Untold Truth Of Cynthia Nixon
When someone mentions Cynthia Nixon, what image comes to mind first? Is she a suited and booted lawyer, ready to take on a case? Is she sprawled on her bathroom floor butt naked, being rescued by her BFF's boyfriend? Is she yelling at sandwiches on the street, or out on the town with three of her closest gal pals? Whichever visual springs into your mind, the likelihood is that your first thought is connected to her Sex and the City character, Miranda Hobbes — the independent, headstrong, and fiercely loyal woman who, in 1998, became a household name.
In real life, Nixon isn't so different from Hobbes — she, too, is immensely driven, intelligent and warm-hearted. Though, of course — and most importantly — she's a real human! And she has much, much more to offer the world than her fictional counterpart. We've listed just some of those offerings for you below, because a little birdy told us we're going to be seeing a lot more of this inspiring lady in the years to come...
Who run the world?
If you've only just begun to hear about Nixon's dalliance with politics, then please take a seat: This woman has been politically informed and active for many years — and no, it's not just because she shares a surname with former President Richard Nixon. In fact, her motivation has nothing to do with him, especially considering she grew up in a family who "hated him so much."
Nixon first made political headlines back in 2011 when lobbying for the legalization of same-sex marriage in NYC. Since then, she's publicly advocated LGBT rights, educational equality, sexual harassment, gun violence, and women's rights. She believes that NYC Governor Cuomo proposes budgets that increase the poor-rich divide in the state, rather than bridge it. So, as of March 2018, Nixon aims to offer those citizens a liberal alternative to his (at that point in time) two-term reign. How, you ask? By running for candidacy herself, naturally.
After announcing that she'll run for governor via Twitter, Nixon released a promotional video that is very fitting for this #MeToo and #TimesUp era, stating that she'll do her utmost to work on the issues mentioned above (plus others, including public transport reform and mass incarceration), and put an end to inequality to NYC, replacing those in power who're "letting [citizens] down."
To quote Queen B, who run the world?
She survived the big C
Anyone who has watched Nixon grab a mic and speak out on public affairs will know that this is a woman that's a force to be reckoned with. She's inspirational, passionate and extremely driven. In 2006, though, one villain clearly did not get that memo, and that villain was cancer. Yet, as you would expect from a woman who's well versed in the art of schooling evil, she beat the living crap out of it.
Per a 2008 report via ABC, Nixon was diagnosed with breast cancer in '06 but chose to keep the news private — which is understandable, really: Who would want paps turning up to the hospital? Yet, while those closest to her grew sick with worry, Nixon kept calm — she even scheduled her surgery for a Sunday so it wouldn't conflict with the off-Broadway play she was performing in at the time!
Talking to Nightline's Cynthia McFadden, Nixon said: "I want [women] most to hear me saying that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself ... the only thing to be afraid of is if you don't go get your mammograms, that's the thing that's going to trip you up." So, ladies, to paraphrase this wise goddess: Check yourself.
Gotta catch 'em all (awards, that is)
There aren't many people who can say they've bagged an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony award, but then — as you're probably figuring out already — Nixon isn't your average gal about town, despite HBO trying to convince us otherwise. Yep, this talented lady scooped up an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy in 2004 for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in Sex in the City — an award presented to her by Donald Trump, no less. (Chances are he's no longer a Nixon supporter, considering her political standpoint — she's certainly not stoked about the fact that she received her first big award from him, that's for sure.)
Two years later, Nixon bagged a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Rabbit Hole, a Broadway show that also won a Pulitzer Prize for drama. And in 2009, she was presented with a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, which she'd worked on for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.
Do you know what this means, folks? It mean's that all Nixon has to do now is bag an Academy Award (what, like it's hard?) and she'll be a fully fledged EGOT — Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony: A list that only 12 other human's in history have made it on to!
She won a Golden Raspberry Award (Razzie) for Worst Actress in 2011, too, but we won't talk about that.
Out and proud
Considering most of us know Nixon better as Miranda Hobbes, the career-focused, bucket-hat wearing, real talk-giving, Steve-dating Sex and the City queen, it's likely that you feel she's similar IRL to her on-screen persona — especially when it comes to sexual orientation. If you do, then spoilers: You're wrong. Nixon is "out" of her (impeccably tailored) closet, and she's damn proud about it! And so will you be, once you clock just how freakin' cute a couple she and her wife Christine Marinoni make.
Yes, you heard correctly: Nixon is married to prominent LGBT advocate Marinoni, and has been since 2012. Per a profile in the Advocate, the pair started dating in 2004, and despite this being Nixon's first same-sex relationship, there was no big "coming out" moment for her; no conscious leap of sexual labels. She claims only to "identify as gay as a political stance," and that "prior to falling in love with Christine, [if asked, she] would have said [that she thinks] we're all bisexual. But [she] had that point of view without ever having felt attracted to a woman."
Since then, Nixon has been vocal about her sexuality, from calling for resistance at rallies to being honored with a Vito Russo Award from GLAAD in 2010.
New Yorkers aren't rude (just don't yell at her)
Being a New Yorker, born and raised, and now raising her own kids in the Big Apple, it's no wonder Nixon is fond of the state and its inhabitants. Hell, she loves the place and the people so much she wants to govern it. It should go without saying then that she does not find the "New Yorker's are rude" stereotype to be true, but rather thinks they just come across as brash because everyone is always trying to get where they need to go.
In a conversation with The New Potato, Nixon stuck up for her state's misinterpreted rudeness, using the fact that people yell "Miranda" at her as an example. She explained that while being called Miranda doesn't drive her insane, it does if you yell it at her. "When people yell 'Miranda!!' I ignore them. I don't like the yelling." She says that true New Yorkers, however, don't do that: "To me, the classic New Yorker way they compliment you is they don't break their stride. They pass you and they're walking and they compliment you like, 'Hey, I like your work,' because they don't have time to stop and you don't have time to stop. That's the classic New York way."
You got that?
She's related to an axe murderer
While most families store at least one skeleton in their closet, Cynthia Nixon found more bones than she bargained for while attempting to discover more about her heritage in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? To be fair, not many people delve into their family tree expecting to find an axe murderer in their midst — yet that's the crime Nixon's great-great-great grandmother, Martha Curnett, was convicted of.
As Nixon unearthed, back in the 1840s this ancestor had offed her very abusive husband with an axe. In the episode, they find an article dated 1843, which told that Curnett's douche-bag spouse, Noah, "was in the habit of treating his wife in a manner too brutal and too shocking to think of," and had threatened to kill Curnett before sunset that day. Seemingly, this was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back for Curnett, who promptly "took the axe with which she had been chopping wood and with one blow sunk it deep into his head, just through the eyes" as he slept.
And, while, of course, Nixon does not endorse brutal violence such as whacking your spouse with a bladed instrument, she noted that she admires Curnett's strength nonetheless.
She was arrested!
Nixon may have banked big bucks portraying attorney Miranda Hobbes in Sex and the City, yet in 2002 she found herself on the wrong side of the law — but, one might argue, for the right reasons.
Per People's report, Nixon and 11 others were arrested for their involvement in a protest that demanded "better funding for public schools." According to the article, Nixon was photographed with her hands outstretched awaiting arrest outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan, after she and the others had blocked its entrance and sang "We Shall Not Be Moved" — until, obviously, they were.
It's reported that the protest was held in retaliation to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "proposal to slice $350 million out of the Board of Education's budget." As Nixon's children attend public schools (a rarity for celebrity children, might we add), she had already seen the result of such financial cuts first hand, and thus felt compelled to make a stand.
According to the same report by People, after the arrest, Nixon was recorded telling Newsday: "I feel good. I feel it's the right thing to do." She had already warned her daughter (Samantha) that such a consequence could result from the protest, and like her mother, Samantha is one savvy lady. Nixon said: "My daughter herself brought up Martin Luther King, and so she says she understands that sometimes you have to go to jail to make things better." Samantha was five years old at the time. Can you say #ParentGoals?
She started acting when she was really young
In 1998, a 'lil show called Sex and the City catapulted Cynthia Nixon and three other ladies — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kirstin Davis and Kim Cattrall — into the big leagues. Suddenly they were household names and (it felt as if) every woman on the planet began asking one another whether they were more of a "Samantha" or a "Miranda." It might come as a surprise to learn then that this HBO hit was not Nixon's first rodeo; in fact, she'd been in the acting ring for two decades before SatC even premiered. 20 years!
"I started acting when I was twelve," she told The New Potato, though her first credit on IMDb suggests she appeared on an episode of Notruf California at age 8. Regardless of age, though, it surprised us to learn that Nixon had no less than 38 acting projects under her belt before she was picked up for SatC — though eagle eyed fans (with a solid memory for faces) may recall spotting her in gems such as Baby's Day Out, Addams Family Values, and Murder, She Wrote.
No 'fake news' Nixon
It seems like the term "fake news" is banded around left, right and center these days — so much so it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. How do you ever truly know whether the article you're peeking at is falsehood-peddling propaganda or talking truth? Nixon's approach is quite refreshing: She reads a bunch of titles — The New York Times, Slate, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, etc — in order to get a rounded view courtesy of a variety of perspectives, and thus understand a situation not only from her own, which is incredibly important (especially when you're running for governor)!
Nixon told The New Potato that a friend introduced her to even more revolutionary approach: Get out and talk to others with an opposing view. "You can't just talk to the people you agree with, because honestly, it isn't doing us very much good. It is good to huddle with your people, to mobilize and to fight, but I think there's such a lack of understanding on both sides, and that is the bigger problem."
If the recent divisive nature of global politics has taught us anything it's that social media and even certain news sites cannot always be trusted — so, make like Miranda Cynthia Nixon: get outside, connect to your peers, and start widening your own perspective.