Exclusive: And Just Like That's Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis on playing flawed women

India Today

5 days ago

It's been over two decades since 'Sex and the City' redefined television for women around the world and yet,' And Just Like That', its spiritual successor, continues to spark conversation by asking the same big, messy, essential questions: Who am I now? What do I really want?In an exclusive roundtable interaction with India Today, actors Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, and Sarita Choudhury - who portray Miranda, Charlotte, and Seema, respectively - opened up about their evolving characters, the importance of flawed women on screen, and how representation still has a long road ahead.advertisementCynthia Nixon, who's played Miranda Hobbes for nearly 30 years, reflected on how much her personal journey has diverged—and at times overlapped—with her iconic on-screen persona. 'When I first started playing Miranda, I didn't have a lot in common with her,' she admitted. 'We were both confident with our brains and very career-focused, but that's where the similarities ended. I was in a long-term relationship, I had a child, I cooked, all the things Miranda initially rejected.'
But as Miranda's arc evolved over time, Nixon found herself gaining something from the character too. 'She was very different from anything I had played, strong, cynical, bold. I was always cast as the timid, go-with-the-flow type. I think I actually gained confidence from her outspokenness,' she said. She dismissed criticisms that Miranda was once too strident or difficult, saying, 'Many of the things she was espousing then have now become mainstream. Miranda was a trailblazer.'advertisementShe also acknowledged that Miranda remains someone who breaks the mould and a few things along the way. 'She's a bit of a bull in a China shop. She makes mistakes, but she's trying to figure out the right path. And if Miranda's heading somewhere, it might be messy, but she'll find a way to get there," she added.Kristin Davis, who returns as Charlotte York, emphasised how 'Sex and the City' originally challenged the idea that women on TV needed to be perfect to be likable. 'We all believed in what we were doing, even when there was criticism,' she said. 'Why should women characters be perfect? No one is.' Looking back, Davis believes one of the show's greatest contributions was allowing women to be flawed, confused, and still worthy of love and screen time.'We were watching women struggle with choices and not always having the answers. That was rare then and still is,' she noted. 'I wish there were more characters like us today. You still don't see enough women who are simply allowed to search for who they are, especially women over 50. You're either a wife, a mother, a girlfriend, but back when we started, being single wasn't even a real character type. Now it is.'advertisementDavis pointed out that longevity matters, too. 'We've been allowed to evolve, to continue searching. That's the biggest gift our characters haven't been frozen in time. They're still asking, 'Who am I now?' Just like we all are.'For Sarita Choudhury, who plays the ever-so-cool Seema Patel, 'And Just Like That' offered something she rarely sees on Western television a chance to portray a South Asian woman without leaning into stereotypes. 'It's the way you phrased it,' she said, smiling at the question about representation. 'It is so important, and I don't think I realised how much I look for that until I saw it done right.'She explained that with Seema, the writers gave her a character with depth first, not a checklist of cultural traits. 'I saw she smokes, she walks into a room and owns it, and I thought, this is exciting. This isn't a stereotype. And then I could bring in my own background naturally. It wasn't forced.'Sarita emphasised that while conversations around representation have grown louder, meaningful execution still lags behind. 'It's hard for it to happen in the world we live in. But when it does, like it has with Seema, it's refreshing," she said.advertisementAs the series continues to navigate love, loss, reinvention, and identity in New York City, its cast continues to evolve, showing us that the search for self doesn't end, it just evolves.'And Just Like That' is available for streaming on JioHotstar in India.- EndsMust Watch