Business Insider confirms Cynthia Nixon appeared in the “Law & Order: SVU” Season 9 premiere “Alternate.” In a role far removed from the tightly-wound Miranda Hobbes, Nixon played a woman named Janis Donovan, who struggled with Dissociative Identity Disorder. As a result, the character required Nixon to portray a whole plethora of different identities, from an adult man to a teenage girl. She rightfully won an Emmy Award for her performance.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Nixon appeared on the show three times overall, starting in 1990, when she played the victim of a violent assault who claims self-defense after shooting two young Black commuters on the subway. Just a few years after winning an Emmy in 2008, for Janis (who actually turns out to be faking her condition, FYI), the “SATC” breakout returned for the final season of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” This time, the character was Miranda adjacent, as Nixon played a stressed-out Broadway director opposite living legend Patti Smith.
Nixon’s latest role is Ada in “The Gilded Age,” the younger sister of Christine Baranski’s outspoken Agnes. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the veteran performer acknowledged people typically think of her as Miranda, “outspoken and opinionated and not afraid to be confrontational.” However, she argued, “I’m as much Ada as Miranda. I’m incredibly domestic; I’m a homebody like Ada is. My brain is maybe more like Miranda’s but I think my heart is more Ada.”
