Sex and the City Actress Lynn Cohen Is Still Waiting for Magda's Boyfriend

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When you think about Sex and the City, the first women who come to mind are of course the main foursome — Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha — but there was a fifth lady on the show who made quite an impact: Magda, Miranda's formidable housekeeper and eventual nanny. Played by veteran theater actress Lynn Cohen, Magda first appeared in the season-three episode "Attack of the 5'10" Woman," memorably replacing Miranda's vibrator with a statue of the Virgin Mary and telling her that she'd need to learn to cook if she ever wanted a boyfriend.

Lynn, now 84, says that Magda was only supposed to appear in that one episode, but she eventually returned in season four and appeared throughout the rest of the series and in both movies. "There's nothing like Sex and the City," says Lynn. "I've never done another show like that where I found a dildo. Although I'm still ready to find another dildo at another time!" Here, Lynn shares her memories of the show and explains why Sex and the City has become such an iconic show since its debut 20 years ago.

On the first time she met showrunner Michael Patrick King

The very first time I ever really met Michael was maybe 30 years ago and we were doing [theater] at a girls school somewhere upstate. He was doing As You Like It and I was doing Hedda Gabler, and we stayed in a dormitory and ate in the cafeteria. Very glamorous, right? I'm essentially a vegetarian, but the cafeteria was always out of fruit. So when the cafeteria closed and they were putting out the fruit for the next morning, I would creep into the cafeteria and steal an orange or an apple, and you know who caught me doing it? Michael Patrick King. And he never let me forget it. I said, "Michael, that's female survival-ship." Women know how to survive! They sneak into cafeterias and get an orange. That bonded us forever.

On getting the role of Magda

To be very honest I'd never seen the show. I don't watch a lot of television. But I knew Michael was a part of it so I knew it was a class act. I went in to audition for it and it was only going be one episode. The writing was very bright, very smart, and more than that, a recognition of women's intelligence. So I auditioned and they called me right away to do the episode, but my mother was turning 90 years old in Texas and I said, "I would love to do this but I'm sorry, I have to be with my mother and she's turning 90 and she's sexier than anybody on the show." And they moved the date for me!

On Magda's importance to the series

It showed a woman of a different age who was smart as the devil, very bossy, and also understood sexuality, and they needed that. It enlarged the canvas on which they were working, that they would not have a typical old lady molding away in some retirement home somewhere, but a woman who worked, and didn't suffer fools. I say as an actress you're never any better than the person you're working with and I was working with the best in Cynthia, so I must have been pretty damn good.

On Magda's lost boyfriend

They did an episode that was never shown in which I had a promising boyfriend. They got me a fancy black dress, they got me to go to a bar with him, but it turned out the [actor] was not using any of the lines in the scene, just taking it in a totally different direction. They decided that would not work and of course it wouldn't have. I was waiting! Where was my boyfriend?

Lynn filming the first Sex and the City movie with Cynthia Nixon in 2007.

On Cynthia Nixon running for governor

I think it would be great [if she won]! We need a woman everywhere we can put one. Look at the terrain. Look at what's happening. Cynthia is so smart. She's the real deal. A wonderful actress, but dedicated to improving humanity and particularly children. A very, very extraordinary person. I called her [recently] and said, "You need me to come pass out pamphlets, here I am!"

On the show's lasting impact

The influence of the whole series was enormous. If you went to a bar, you saw people dressed like that. I've been all over this country, and women who were in their 90s would come up and say, "All my life we never mentioned the word sex, and now I would never ever miss one episode of the reruns." And they see them again and again. It still happens, because it changed the image of women in a very positive way. Their intelligence and their bonding with each other, not just at each other's throats. I was in Italy recently and I was in a glass factory looking around, and all of a sudden I hear from way across the room [does Italian accent], "Magda! It’s Magda!" Every country I've been in. I still can't go anywhere without having somebody hug me.

On whether or not Magda would still be working for Miranda in 2018

I think she would be. [She's] like my grandmother. Till the day she died she was scrubbing the floors. She was taught that work is the most important thing in life, and working with people that you love is a way of showing love. I might be taking care of the grandchildren of Miranda...but till the day I died. My mother died when she was 95 and she was still the killer of the world. Women! Women work. Women move the world.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Sex and the City turns 20 on June 6. Read more anniversary articles here.