Cynthia Nixon became a household name at the dawn of this millennium for portraying a sardonic, careerist, and fiercely loyal New Yorker otherwise known as Miranda Hobbes, a role she revived in the polarizing And Just Like That… spin-off until last year. The Sex and the City saga has come to a close, but another role has propelled Nixon into the zeitgeist—as the ever-chipper 1880s New Yorker Ada Forte in HBO’s The Gilded Age. The period drama, which is airing its fourth season this winter, has steadily picked up steam and an ardent fandom since premiering in 2022. Nixon’s Ada is the moral (albeit naïve) foil to the show’s status-obsessed elite and scheming barons reshaping New York and the country.
The 60-year-old actor’s commitment to her home city and state is hardly confined to the screen. After an unsuccessful New York gubernatorial run in 2018, Nixon has only renewed her support of leftist social causes and local politicians. Ahead of the midterms and the latest season of The Gilded Age, I met Nixon for breakfast at Little Ruby’s in Murray Hill, where she enjoyed her usual: a Green Eggs Bowl with smoked salmon.
Are you a coffee drinker?
I’m not. I’m a tea person. You don’t have the crash so much. And I just like the taste.
Have you always lived around Kips Bay?
I’ve been in New York my whole life but never in this area until now. I was on the Upper West Side until I was 40. Then my wife [Christine Marinoni] was trying to get me to move to Brooklyn, but I’m very Manhattan-stuck. So we moved downtown, where we were for 11 years. Which was really fabulous, maybe a little too fabulous. We always say when we’re old and incontinent in the nursing home, we’ll be like, “Remember Bleecker Street?” It’ll bring us right back.
The Gilded Age has really caught on in this cultural buzz kind of way.
Last season particularly. The first season, we were finding our footing, our style. During season two, things started to take hold, and last season was amazing. This season will be even better.
Do you have Ada’s positivity in your real life?
I’m an optimist. I believe what people tell me about who they are; it’s a good place to start, at least.
I’m curious what your relationship to Sex and the City is today. It’s a worldwide phenomenon; is that still strange to you?
I enjoy when people who don’t live in New York run into me on the street or the subway or whatever, because it’s so meta for them. But I have to say the wildest thing is to be in a foreign country and have people come up to you.
Are there specific Miranda moments that feel particularly meaningful to you?
Season two, when Miranda decides to buy her own apartment. It brings up so many existential fears that she had no idea she had—not only dying alone but living her life alone. All of a sudden, her stomach lurches, and she winds up in the emergency room. It was the moment I thought, Oh, I’m not just going to have to keep playing the same instrument. I have this very particular tone that I’ve been contributing to the show, but actually they’re going to give me a lot of different instruments to play.
If a Sex and the City episode comes on, do you keep it on?
When my wife and I met, she had never seen it, so I think I watched some of them with her. But Kristin [Davis], of course, is doing her podcast and she had never watched any of them since we made them. I think she has been delightfully surprised because she thought, which I never thought, that our first season wasn’t great. Our first season was great. I love that it’s dark. And the cynicism! It’s much closer to Candace [Bushnell]’s actual column.
Did you ever encounter Trump in the Sex and the City era?
Yes, Trump made an appearance in Sex and the City, although I wasn’t there. But he did present me with my first Emmy.
I’m curious how you’re feeling politically now? Are you sensing positive energy from the younger people you talk to about politics?
Definitely. If you make a movie that’s new and different and speaks to young people where they are, they will turn out for it. And if you put a candidate up [who hasn’t been using] the same old establishment talking points for the last 50 years, people are going to flock to that person.
Are you excited about how Zohran Mamdani has been received, and the energy in the city?
It’s amazing. All of my kids are excited, especially my 15-year-old—he’s always been proud to be a New Yorker, but I think it makes him prouder.
Can you imagine running for office again?
No. I ran for governor because nobody else would run against [Andrew] Cuomo, and he’s gone now.
How has Manhattan changed over the course of your life?
Real estate is a nightmare. I don’t only mean how unaffordable things are, which of course is part of it. But when I walk around Manhattan, so many businesses have closed in almost every neighborhood. We’re just warehousing these properties. I’m no expert, but I think there needs to be a penalty for landlords with commercial spaces who are not renting them out. It’s like, “You get three months to rent it out, and then we’re going to start fining you.” If landlords had a financial imperative to put business in their spaces, this city wouldn’t be full of Chase banks and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Lastly, are you a morning person?
I am a morning person. I don’t always get up early, but when I get up early, I like it. Ben Franklin was right.
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