BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. _ Actress Cynthia Nixon insists she's not a perfectionist. Yet, after 36 years of performing, she says she can still be intimidated by a role. An example was when she portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt 11 years ago.
"I was playing opposite Kenneth Branagh, and I just felt like I was in a whole other league," she says, seated at a small round table in a meeting room here.
"But I was very touched to see that he didn't feel that way. I feel that � particularly if you've been around long enough � you have to start to believe you've earned your place at the table."
She's anxious again as she's poised to play her second first lady when the National Geographic Channel premieres "Killing Reagan" on Sunday. Though the reputation of Nancy Reagan can be daunting, Nixon says, "I knew some things about her, but I read a lot of books and learned a lot more. I think she's a fascinating character. Her feelings are notable, but her strengths are remarkable.
"He had demons inside, but his exterior and the face he presented to the world was a very sunny one and very friendly, outgoing and laidback. So she was the one that was vigilant. And she was the attack dog in that relationship and in that White House."
Most people recognize Nixon from her role as the workaholic red-headed attorney in "Sex and the City," though she's also costarred in "The Big C," "Hannibal," "Too Big to Fail," and appeared onstage in plays like "The Heidi Chronicles," "Angels in America" and "The Real Thing."
While she denies being an overachiever, she says, "I'm good at preparation, making sure everything is ahead of schedule, the larder is stocked, the dinner's on the table, the children are dressed and out the door. I'm really good at that. I'm really not so good at just letting things unfold the way they naturally would."
Sighing, she adds, "I'm a bit of a stage manager, I think. I think we go through different stages in our life, so I've been the stage manager for a long time and I'm kinda ready to stop. I was a stage manager because I was so anxious about being able to do all those things. Well, I think I've proved to myself that I can do them. So maybe it's time to try doing something else, and I don't have to control everything."
The actress has three children and is married to Christine Marinoni. About Marinoni, Nixon says, "When I fell in love with my wife, that was an extraordinary experience. I felt like I'd found the person I needed, like Nancy when she met Ronnie. She felt, 'Oh, I've met the person I really need.'"
Nixon's mother was an actress who attended the Yale School of Drama and became Cynthia's first drama teacher. Her father started out as a radio journalist and later worked as a reference librarian in the financial index for Standard & Poor's. An only-child, she recalls: "I started acting when I was about 11 or 12, but my parents were very wise to warn me that most child actors don't become adult actors, so I had that very much in mind _ that this was going to be until I was grown up. And I was saving money for college.
"I went to college, but by the time I graduated � I'd worked all through � and when I graduated, I had two different job offers. And I was, like, 'Well, I'm 22. I seem to be an adult. The work is still coming, so I guess maybe this can be my real career.' My parents were thrilled."
Close to her mom, it was a shattering experience when her mother died two years ago of breast cancer. "All of us feel like our parents are so powerful and there's something about the ways in which my mother, in her last weeks, was so fragile," she says, her eyes tearing up.
"It taught me a lot about her, but it also taught me a lot about everybody. I was handling everything about her illness, and it was so much effort. Sometimes she would try, and I just wanted her to let me handle it. But I realized that whatever age we are, and however frail we are, we never lose our need to feel like we're contributing. And in some ways I wish I'd made her feel that more, (rather) than handling it more efficiently," she pauses.
"One of the things I'm trying to learn as I get older is that I always want to feel good and always feel I'm doing a good job and that I've taken care of it in a good way and everything is moving forward. But what I'm coming to learn is that sometimes things can feel bad. And we can learn a lot more from that."
'HOMELAND' PREDECESSOR TO AIR
Ever wonder what makes Showtime's "Homeland" so absorbing? The reason is that the creator, Gideon Raff, based it on an Israeli series that he also created titled "Prisoners of War." That original series � which is about three Israeli soldiers returning to their home after 17 years in confinement � will air on Link TV, Dish and DirecTV starting Oct. 24.
Raff says that he began to wonder what it would be like to come home after such a long absence and how it would affect the family. While he describes the American version as a "thriller," he says the Israeli version is more of a character study. The show is based on actual returnees, though the longest any Israeli was kept captive was 11 years.
When asked what was the difference between making a series in Israel and making one in the U.S., he says: "It cost twice as much to make the pilot of 'Homeland,' as it did to make the first two seasons of 'Prisoners of War.' That's the way things are done here."
BACHELOR DINNER SPAWNS TV SERIES
TV shows are devised in various ways. But the manner in which "Falling Water," premiering on USA Thursday, originated is unique. Blake Masters recalls, "Henry (Bromwell) and I came up with this in 2006. The way we came up with it is we were drunk, and both our mothers were Jungian therapists. And it was actually my bachelor dinner, and Henry had this theory about how our dreams reflected our collective unconscious.
"And he was explaining this to a friend of mine, and across the table, I was listening. I go, 'Henry, that's a show. We should make that a show.' We were busy making 'Brotherhood,' and so we didn't just then. In 2008, the writers' strike hit. We were bored. We walked around Santa Monica going, 'Can we make that a show?' And so we wrote the pilot."
The series is about three unrelated people who are dreaming separate parts of the same dream. And when Masters presented it to producer Gale Anne Hurd, she was in. Unfortunately Bromwell died before they could get the pilot made. "I lost my partner on this show, and I lost my brother. And I didn't touch the script for a year. And then I said, 'I have to finish it.' And so I went back with Gale and did, like, a small polish based on that script we wrote in 2008. And television had kind of caught up to this weird place where we were in 2006 ..."
BILLY BOB THORNTON PLAYS IMPERFECT HERO
Billy Bob Thornton is circling up his slingshot for his latest role in "Goliath," premiering on Amazon Prime Friday. He plays an alcoholic lawyer who's pitted against a giant law firm, but he doesn't want to call him a hero.
"The thing that appealed to me anyway, was a guy whose sense of justice is not exactly what's legal," says Thornton. "It's more what's fair, he believes. But he's also got a bunch of flaws ... You can't just make a guy milk and cookies, you know?
"No matter what type of guy he is, he's going to have some kind of _ every human being has their flaws. And he's not always right. And he also doesn't always do things on the up-and-up. He's kind of a guy who uses whatever means he has, which I guess any lawyer does ... The 'Fargo' guy was an out-and-out, I guess you'd say, 'villain.' But this guy also has his really dark side, even though, I suppose for the piece, is the hero."
