Emmy-winning “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon continued her campaign for governor with a stop on Wendy Williams’ talk-show couch Wednesday morning to encourage New Yorkers to “step up and get involved like never before.”
The last time Nixon appeared on “The Wendy Williams Show,” she was promoting “SATC.” While Williams isn’t known for landing political guests on her Manhattan-filmed morning show, her 2 million daily viewers served as a big draw for Nixon, her rep says.
“We win by getting her in front of voters, because we actually want them to see the real Cynthia,” Nixon’s campaign spokeswoman Rebecca Katz said in a statement to Variety. It was her first national TV appearance as a candidate.
The conversation ranged from Nixon’s trendy heels to gun regulations, race and gender inequality. Below, the quotable quotes and other highlights from her brief “Wendy Williams Show” drop by.
This “Sex and the City” moment “devastated me.”
Of course, the actress-turned-political star kicked off her conversation with a little “SATC” talk. Telling Williams her political run is backed by four, not three, “SATC” cast members (“All four, because I’m totally behind it”), she touched on a moment in the second film that left her “devastated.”
“I was a little devastated by that because it seemed to me the show was so much about female empowerment,” she said about a scene where Mr. Big opens a closet door for Carrie which was met by cheers from the audience. “For me to have this be the climax of the film, that your wealthy husband built you a closet, I thought this isn’t really what you love about the show, is it, because that’s not what we’re making it for.”
The election “was a real wake-up call.”
The New York native said her desire to run against two-term Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo stemmed from a few reasons. The two top ones being: she loves the city (clearly). “I believe so much in New York.”; and the election inspired her to “step up.” “For me, the election of Donald Trump was a real wake-up call for women across the country.”
“I think it is a black man thing.”
Williams’ interview wasn’t loaded with hard-hitters, but she did fit in a few questions on the issues like Nixon’s stance on gun control and whether or not she supports the Black Lives Matter movement. The two discussed the shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man who was shot eight times by Sacramento police officers last month. “I think it is a black man thing,” Nixon said after being asked by Williams if the shootings were “a black man thing.”
“I think too often our elected leaders will talk about killings when it’s a lot of kids in a school,” she said. “But when it’s young black men of color being shot by police unarmed . . . if we’re going to say black lives matter, we have to mean it.”
“Black women are going to stop showing up for the Democratic party.”
Williams stressed how important the vote of her black female supporters can be, telling her that 90 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Nixon called these women the “backbone” of the Democratic party and stressed that the government needs to “let them lead.”
“Black women are going to stop showing up for the Democratic party if the Democratic party doesn’t show up for them,” she said.
