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Just months after the death of her own mother, Cynthia Nixon decided to take on the role of a parent dying of cancer in the riveting 2015 film, James White.
ET caught up with the Sex and the City star at the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday night, where both the film and Nixon were nominated, and she was still quite emotional when talking about her critically acclaimed film and how her role seemed to coincide with her real life.
James White is about a 20-something New Yorker, played by former Girls actor Christopher Abbott, who struggles to take control of his self-destructive behavior as he cares for his sick mother, played by Nixon. In January 2014, the 49-year-old actress' own mother died after her third battle with breast cancer.
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"The year in which we made the film my mother had died of cancer, so it was obviously very raw and fresh and personal," Nixon, a mother of three and a survivor of breast cancer herself, told ET. "For me and for [director] Josh Mond, it's really a story about him and his mother to a large extent. I think when you've been through something like the death of a parent, and then you're able to share it with people some people out there are going through it to, it means a lot."
Breaking down a bit, Nixon added, "We often get more the Hallmark version of that and so it's nice to see a version of that from people who've actually been through it I think."
Earlier this year, Vanessa Hudgens also paid tribute to her late father through her art. News broke that Greg Hudgens had died just hours before the actress was to perform in Grease: Live, and she decided to still do the show in her father's honor.