Canada.com
September 28, 2002

Little air time for Sex and the City's beloved Big, Noth warns

By Helen Branswell
Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - He's known as TV's Mr. Big. But at the moment, actor Chris Noth is Mr. Bored.

Noth, in Toronto for a charity event, has agreed to do publicity interviews for Bravo. The Canadian specialty channel broadcasts both the runaway hit, Sex and the City, which has made Noth fantasy fodder for multitudes of women and re-runs of Law & Order, the long-running favourite on which Noth played Detective Mike Logan for five years.

Problem is, Noth, 47, isn't too keen to talk about either of them.

He's heard the questions. Many, many, many, many times. They bore him. And on this day at least, Noth's tolerance for things that bore him - and they seem legion - is exceedingly low.

So an innocuous opening comment ("So, about Mr. Big. . . .") gets cut off, mid-question.

"What about him?" Noth growls.

The warning is clear: Proceed at your own peril.

Pressing on in the face of Noth's evident disinterest elicits the following Sex and the City factoids:

- Big is in only one episode this truncated season. Carrie hooks up with Big when a book signing tour takes her to San Francisco. "I thought it was a good episode, the one we did. And we'll see what happens next season," says Noth, whose surname rhymes with both.

- Whether there will be a next season for Mr. Big is no sure thing. "To tell you the truth I don't foresee doing a lot of them - if any - next season. . . . It just depends on my schedule and theirs and whether the story line's organic enough to merit it."

- Mr. Big doesn't have another name. (If you ever run into Noth, do not ask this question. Come to think of it, don't call him Mr. Big either. "It's r-e-a-l-l-y boring.") "It's a fictional contrivance," Noth says of the name thing, lolling on a leopard skin-patterned couch in Bravo's downtown offices. "There is no other name. They (the writers) don't want to explore it any further. And I don't ask them to."

- Noth, whose standards are exacting, gives Sex and the City top marks. "Sex and the City still is an incredibly original show. I don't think Law & Order is anymore. I think Law & Order is like Gunsmoke. You see it coming a mile away."

Truth be told, Noth doesn't think much of what passes as television these days, which is why he hasn't tried to parlay the incredible profile the small-but-pivotal role on Sex and the City has given him into another series, a talk show, or, God forbid, Mr. Big cologne.

"When I did Law & Order in 1990, when you think about it, it preceded so many of these shows that are basically reality shows and they are all saying the same thing," Noth explains. "All these doctor/lawyer/cop shows. No matter how sort of innovative they can be, I'm bored by it."

Noth is talking about being bored, but he no longer seems it. An engaged Chris Noth is a much more interesting interview.

"I have a lot of offers and choices and I choose not to do it. Because I don't honestly believe in most of the material that comes my way.

"And frankly, as I've gotten older, I don't want to just give my life over to a TV series, unless it's something that I feel as passionate about as I did the first few years of Law & Order or have as much fun and be in something that has as great writing as Sex and the City, with as great people."

As a matter of fact, Noth feels he's spending entirely too much time in the living rooms of the world as is it.

"I'm so exposed on TV, between Sex and the City and Law & Order," he insists. "I don't want to be in everyone's household all the time. You know what I mean? I don't want to be in another popular TV show, necessarily."

Perhaps he'd find an unsuccessful show more stimulating? Noth is not amused.

"Well, that's not fun either," Noth retorts. "I have to still earn a living because frankly, I haven't made a lot of money from any of these."

You might think he and the rest of the Law & Order cast are rolling in residuals, given the show's omnipresence in syndication. You would be wrong, according to Noth. They make "a pittance" - he repeated the word six times so it may just be a sore point - for the hours and hours of cable programming that Law & Order fills, he says.

But back to the issue of Noth and his career strategy. He's a guy who knows more is not better.

"I just don't want to become a commodity. And that's what it starts to feel like. You know? You feel like a bar of freakin' soap that they're selling. I just want to do diverse kinds of things."

Noth is giving it his best shot.

He will be seen this season as Pompey the Great, a Roman general, in TNT's mini-series Julius Caesar. He's trying to find financial backing for a Romulus Linney play he'd like to do called Klonsky and Schwartz, about the poet Delmore Schwartz. He's trying to figure out if he can work an off-Broadway play he has been offered into his schedule.

He'd love to do a limited run in London's West End, but hasn't found the right vehicle yet. He was asked to co-star in Madonna's West End debut this spring, Up For Grabs, but wasn't interested in the role or the play. He was recently offered the male lead in the hit musical Chicago on Broadway, but turned that down too.

"It's a fun role. I'd be right for it. My problem with that is it's a show that's been on the boards for a long, long time. I prefer to do something new."

He's trying to write and develop a couple of projects of his own, a mini-series for HBO and a series of occasional movies - "black comedy" - based on some books he has the rights to for TNT. He won't say much about either nascent project.

So for the time being, fans may have to content themselves with old Law & Order and Sex and the City episodes for their Noth fixes.

"There are actors that go from one project to the next. And I'm just not one of them," he says flatly.

"I don't need to work to feel happy, all the time. I like to work - when the project speaks to me. Otherwise, there's plenty of great books to read and great places to see."

Oh, and for the record, Noth doesn't think Mr. Big should have a name.

"Do you think people would want to know if let's say my name was Fred or Frank?"

Clearly not. But what if the writers gave Big a great name? A sexy name? A truly worthy name? He doesn't think, at this point, any name would fit Big's bill.

"Unless it was maybe Billy Bob."

At that, Chris Noth chuckles.

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