2006 Tony Awards Q&A: Cynthia Nixon

Nominated for Best Leading Actress in a play for Rabbit Hole, Cynthia Nixon's previous Broadway credits include The Last Night of Ballyhoo; Indiscretions; Angels in America; The Heidi Chronicles; Hurlyburly and The Real Thing (simultaneously); and The Philadelphia Story (Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway credits The Country Club, June Moon, Servy-n-Bernice 4ever, The Illusion, Lemon Sky, Moon Children, Lyndie Breeze, and many more...

Congratulations, how did you react to the news this morning?

I was relieved, because I was hopeful. I got some beautiful flowers, and a bottle of champagne sent to me.

Was your daughter happy as well?

I told her, but I don't know, she said 'yay, yay, yay' though.

Capping off your Rabbit Hole experience this way has to be a great feling?

It's something that I could have dreamed about. You're in the theatre for so many years, and you watch, and it doesn't necessarily occur to you that one day you'll be in the spot of those people that you were watching when you were a kid.

Does it feel weird being nominated, and not having the show still running?

It would certainly, it's so amazing for being remembered, but there would be an additional festiveness if it was still on.

Is the play one that you'd consider doing again somewhere else?

I would do it again. I think we would all do the play again. It's hard for me because I have a kid, so it's hard for me to know how that would work. We all loved doing the play and I'm sure that we'd love to do it again.

What else are you working on at the moment?

I'm reading lots of scripts at the moment, and my daughter gives me things to read because she loves to read, and then loves to have me read them. Right now I'm reading a book called 'The Girl Who Ruled the City,' which is a futuristic book about a plague that hits the earth and everyone over 12 is killed. It's about survival.

You got kudos for singing recently in the benefit for the Public Theater – is a musical in your future?  

I'm taking singing lessons, but asking me if I want to do a musical is like asking an alligator if he wants to fly. Again, 20 years ago, I'd never believe that I'd be here nominated for a Tony so maybe in another 20 years, I'll be here going "And now I'm starring in a Broadway musical!"

You've been making a constant transition back and forth between stage and screen… Do you watch yourself in films and on TV?

I watch it like a hawk. I watch most things, unless directors won't allow me, I watch all the dailies, and everything

Back to Rabbit Hole, how would you sum up that whole experience?

It was kind of perfect, and there aren't that many things in life that really are. I felt like when we all read the play that we were kind of stunned, because it was a departure for David Lindsay-Abaire. This was so sparse, and simple and short. It was a play that was so much about silence and what was unsaid and the subtext. I read the play, and I loved it and Dan Sullivan is someone who's able to direct things making it seem like he's not doing very much at all. It's just amazing, and he doesn't say a lot, but he steps in when you need it.

It was just kind of perfect, everything worked. The set enhanced it and the cast we got was perfect so it was perfect!

Is it something that you would ever consider filming?

Probably not, I think that's what makes theatre so special is that it's there while you're doing it, and then it's gone.