By
Alanah Eriksen
Last updated at 11:35 AM on 26th January 2012
She has the look down pat, now all Cynthia Nixon needs is the rave reviews.
The former Sex and the City star can be seen playing a convincing cancer patient in these publicity shots for her new Bradway show, Wit, which starts today.
The 45-year-old boldly shaved off her trademark red hair for the role of ailing professor Vivian Bearing at New York’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Playing the part: Former Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, left, and co-star Carra Patterson in a scene from Wit at New York’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
And it looks as though she may have even lost weight.
The mother-of-three can we seen sitting in a hospital bed, eating an iced-lolly, with her nurse, played by Carra Patterson.
In another shot, she can be seen giving a lecture while in her scrubs, wearing a red hat to cover her bare head.
She unveiled a stark new look on Live With Kelly this week.
Kelly Ripa began the interview with the quip: ‘So what’s new?’
Ailing: Cynthia looked as though she had lost weight to play the role of cancer-stricken professor, Vivian Bearing
After the blonde host complimented the star on the shape of her head,
Cynthia said: ‘I thought it was kind of gonna be no muss-no fuss, but I
have to shave it every day!
‘It’s got kind of a five o’clock shadow, and you don’t want to go on with that,’ she continued.
‘I was always kind of curious to see what it would be like. I like it; I don’t think I’m gonna keep it forever.’
She follows the footsteps of Who’s the Boss actress Judith Light, who also shaved her hair for the same role a decade ago.
Of course, it is a role close to Nixon’s
heart – she herself discovered she had the early stages of breast
cancer during a routine mammogram in 2006.
Giving it her all: The actress alongside co-star Greg Keller, who plays her doctor
On the stage: Cynthia plays cancer stricken poetry professor Vivian Bearing
She had a lumpectomy and
radiation – but no chemotherapy – and continues to take the drug
Tamoxifen, which blocks the actions of estrogen and is used to treat and prevent some types of breast cancer.
Of her stage character, Cynthia said: ‘She’s really at the top of her profession.
She’s a professor of 17th century poetry. She’s the best; she knows
she’s the best
‘She gets a really bad cancer diagnosis and she goes
through this really heavy-duty chemo and she meets that challenge, but
she learns a lot about herself.’
Stark look: Cynthia unveiled her bald head this week on Live with Kelly
Blitz: The former Sex and the City star is promoting her new play Wit
Meanwhile, Nixon has also opened up about her sexuality in a candid new interview.
The star, who is engaged to her long-term partner Christine Marinoni – with who she has an 11-month-old son Max – says it was her decision to become a lesbian.
Cynthia – who was with former partner
Danny Mozes for 15 years and had two children, Samantha, 15, and
nine-year-old Charlie, with him – said: ‘I gave a speech recently, an
empowerment speech to a gay audience, and it included the line ‘I’ve
been straight and I’ve been gay, and gay is better.
‘And
they tried to get me to change it, because they said it implies that
homosexuality can be a choice. And for me, it is a choice. I understand
that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t
get to define my gayness for me.
Trademark look: Cynthia played redhead Miranda alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis in the TV series and spin-off films
‘A certain section of our community is
very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it’s a
choice, then we could opt out.
‘I say it doesn’t matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not.’
Cynthia insists she hasn’t always been gay and finds it ‘offensive’ that people say she has.
She told The New York Times: ‘Why can’t it be a choice? Why is that any less legitimate? It seems we’re just ceding this point to bigots who are demanding it, and I don’t think that they should define the terms of the debate.
‘I also feel like people think I was walking around in a cloud and didn’t realise I was gay, which I find really offensive. I find it offensive to me, but I also find it offensive to all the men I’ve been out with.’
Family: The star with her partner Christine Marinoni and their son Max in February last year
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Emma Thomson in this role was the most touching performance I’ve ever seen of anything. Cynthia Nixon can’t possibly even come close!
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Still can’t forgive that woman for what she said about being gay is a choice. I hate her now.
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simonandrewuk, brighton uk- agreed!!! Emma Thompson was just incredible in that film, one of the most memorable performances I’ve ever seen and a film I’d very much like to see again one day
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TRUE actress!
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Please watch Emma Thompson in Wit…arguably her very best performance. Difficult yet not impossible to get on DVD.
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