Cynthia Nixon, 60, Accepts That Miranda Hobbes Will Always Eclipse Her

Cynthia Nixon has played Miranda Hobbes for more than 25 years, and she knows the character will define her for the rest of her life. "Miranda seems to eclipse everything else," she said, with cheerful resignation, during a recent interview at her home in Manhattan.

The remark cuts to the central tension of Nixon's career. She has won two Tony Awards on Broadway, run for governor of New York in 2018, and appears in "The Gilded Age." Yet the role that follows her down Manhattan sidewalks is Miranda, the professionally ambitious, personally messy attorney from the HBO comedy "Sex and the City."

Nixon, 60, began acting professionally as a New York City teenager. She played Miranda on the original series from 1998 to 2004, then reprised the role in two feature films and in the follow-up series "And Just Like That...," which ended last year. The gap between that record and public perception is exactly what she names: a glittering Broadway career, a more modest film career, one gubernatorial campaign — and still one character outranks them all.

How does Nixon differ from Miranda?

Considerably, by the account of the interview itself. Nixon has blond hair now. She walks with less aggression and rarely wears a power suit. Where Miranda was brusque, the interviewer describes Nixon as warm and mellow — until the subject turns to politics, where her manner hardens.

The setting reinforced the contrast. Nixon spoke in the yellow-tiled kitchen of the Murray Hill townhouse she shares with her wife, Christine Marinoni, and their child; she has two older children, now grown, from a previous relationship. She offered tea, muffins and half a dozen varieties of fruit, and sliced an apple for the interviewer who had initially declined. The interviewer's verdict: "Miranda would never."

What does this change for her career?

Nothing, by Nixon's own assessment — and that appears to be the point. She does not resent the identification; she admires Miranda and accepts the eclipse with what she herself calls cheerful resignation. For an actress who has moved between stage, screen and electoral politics since her teens, the admission is unusually candid: the role is larger than the résumé behind it.

The interview was conducted by Alexis Soloski, a Times culture reporter since 2006 who covers television, theater, movies, podcasts and new media.