BIG TIME

Sex and The City's Mr Big Thinks He's Not That Hot. We Beg To Differ

Text: Rita Silvan
Photos: Nick Kraznai

As I walk into Chris Noth's room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, the first thing I hear is his distinctive voice cured in that hyper-hetero cocktail of Cohiba cigars and single malt Scotches. He's on the phone. In the bedroom. I'm standing outside the open door, and I notice that maid service hasn't arrived yet. The pillows are askew, the blankets still in a twist. ("Chris Noth slept in that bed!" I scream inside my head. Alone?" I wonder. "Cool it, you're a professional. Get a grip.) He comes out of the bedroom rubbing his shoulder, avoiding eye contact. "My shoulder is killing me," he says to no one in particular.

I open the conversation by asking him if in real life, he is the manly older-than-his-years character he plays on the show. "No, God, no!" He laughs. "That's such an illusion. It's the illusion of acting. I'm so childish in life. I'm sort of a goofball, really. Of course, they put Mr. Big in all these great looking suits, so hard can it be?"

So how does he account for all the women Noth himself, not just Mr. Big irresistibly sexy? "I look at pictures of myself and I wanna barf. You know, I'm probably as vain as anybody. You want to pretend that you look alright before you go out."

THIS WEEK'S BOYFRIEND
Do a search of Chris Noth in Google and you'll see how many fan sites are quick to point out that although Noth has had relationships with such high profile beauties as actres Winona Ryder and model Beverly Johnson, he has never married. Other sites, like This Week's Boyfriend, focus on his inimitable sex appeal. I decide to read Noth some choice excerpts from this fawning fan site.

"I can't really figure out what it is about him that attracts me. He' s not really what one would describe as babe-a-licious. But he's got these thick eyebrows and hair, that crinkly wrinkle between his eyes, and those fantastic cheekbones..." Noth stares at me hard while I'm reading. "Who is that woman?"

"Some people make assumptions because you're an actor. One of the worst dates I ever went on was with this woman I met in Newe York. It was like going through an exam. "You're an actor so you must be like this, blah, blah, blah..."

"It got to the point where it felt as if I was being attacked. I don't care for aggressive, disdainful, crypto-Nazi women," he says.

Like many actors, Noth says he didn't plan on becoming one. Instead, he wanted to be a writer. In college, he was forced to study Latin which, for him, was like "digging ditches." So he took up acting as an extracurricular activity. At first it was just for a lark but soon, he says, he started to take his fun seriously. "I got deeper and deeper, and soon I couldn't get out."

After graduating from college in 1978, Noth studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York City but was kicked out when word got out that he had landed an off-Broadway play at the Manhattan Theater Club. (The rule was you weren't allowed to work and study at the same time.) But leaving the school gave Noth the opportunity to study privately with the esteemed acting teacher Sanford Meisner.

"I was very hungry to study with him. He said a couple of things that never left me: 'What you do as an actor doesn't depend on you, it depends on the other person.' Like if I'm connected to you and you start to cry right now, it's going to make me behave in a certain way. It's all moment to moment. But I have to be connected to you - not staring at you, but emotionally tuned in, really listening and really answering. Another thing is 'an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.'"

In the late 80's, Noth began working in TV and film making his TV debut on Hill Street Blues as a police officer.

BIG BREAK
In 1990, Noth got his big break with the part of Mike Logan, a true-blue American cop, on the series Law & Order. The show was a challenge because it was action - rather than character-driven. He says that in order to give his character dimension, Noth added tartan ties to Logan's wardrobe that were given to him by his mother, Jeanne Parr, a former CBS reporter. He also pinned an American flag on his lapel.

"I wanted to give him the persona of, you know, 'I'm a cop and I'm an American, and I'm proud to be one,'" he explains.

"Of course now it is very moving to see the flag," he goes on. "Last week I was walking down an alleyway in Manhattan and there was this one flag hanging from a building...I think the September attacks have reignited people's feelings for what the symbol means."

After five years, Law & Order had entered reruns and in some cities it was playing up to three times a week. "People were beginning to think I was Mike Logan. I come from rep theater where you want to be an actor, not a character from a show you've done."

Noth decided to quit the show to break out from his image. "Of course, that's exactly what's happening now with Big," he laughs.

Unlike his costars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall, who were both reluctant to star in the show, Noth says he was eager to take on the role because "it was a 180-degree turn from Mike Logan," adding he was sold when he read the first script in which Carrie and Mr. Big meet. (She's sitting in the back of his black limo and flirtatiously asks him," Have you ever been in love?" Big turns, looks straight into her eyes and says, "Absa-fucking-lutely.")

"There is something about that reply that captures the core of his character," Noth explains. "I thought, if the writers stick with this, I'm in."

When he talks about costar Sarah Jessica Parker, his bedroom eyes sparkle. "I couldn't ask for a more amazing leading lady. There's a chemistry that's delightful to be a part of."

OLD SCHOOL
Talking to Noth, you get the sense that he's nostalgic for his days on Broadway. "Meisner used to say that when you've finished the night, you should feel tired, you should feel like you've done a good day's work."

He tells the story of Sir Laurence Olivier after a stellar stage performance with many standing ovations. "A fellow runs back to Olivier's dressing room and pounds on the door, saying, 'My God, that was the most brilliant performance...' and sees Olivier throwing things around the room in a rage. He asks him what's wrong; doesn't he know how great he was? And Olivier says, 'I know, but I don't know how I did it.' That's the constant search," says Noth wistfully.

Still the financial rewards of more lucrative TV and film work haven't entirely been lost on him. He has a beautiful apartment in Manhattan, an investment in a hip downtown music club called The Cutting Room, and he is able to enjoy his greatest passion, travel. The only thing missing is a little country place.

"I went to college in Vermont and my mom lives in the Adirondacks, so I'd eventually like to have a house in the green. Right now, I move around so much."

I ask Noth, a man who is so identified with Manhattan, how life has changed for him since the terrorist attacks in September. "I think it's friendlier than it has ever been. I'm seeing less tolerance for bullshit, for celebrity, for that emotionally distant, ironic stance that was so popular in the 90's," he says.

"The entertainment culture is becoming everything in America and for that to disappear wouldn't be such a bad thing."

So how would Noth make the world a better place? He thinks for a long minute, rubs the stubble on his jaw, draws a deep breath and finally says, "Get a bicycle instead of a car. Plant a tree. Give up a gun." Laughing, he adds, "Make love you your girlfriend."

The interview over, we head to the elevators. Noth is late for lunch. I notice that he's peering at my interview notes. "Is that the page from the woman with the Web site?" He asks, pointing to the banner that reads This Week's Boyfriend.

"Can I have it?"

 

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