Sara Ramirez Tells New York Magazine They Are Not Che Diaz (Again)

The break-out star of the first season of "And Just Like That..." is no doubt Sara Ramirez, the 46-year-old Tony award winner who plays Che Diaz. On the show's first episode they described themselves as a "queer non-binary Mexican Irish diva"; later, in one of the show's most talked-about scenes, they seduced Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) in Carrie's kitchen.

"Like all of the 'Sex and the City' characters, Che, a social-justice-warrior scold with a podcast and a cannabis habit, represents a somewhat over-the-top version of a contemporary New York City type," writes non-binary journalist Brock Colyar in the current issue of New York Magazine. "Che is there to teach the well-maintained, well-meaning, nearly 60-year-old ladies about 'compulsory heterosexuality,' pronounspeak, and using dialogue as a verb."

Che quickly became the show's most talked-about character, and not all of it was good. Last year Ramirez acknowledged to the New York Times that they was "very aware of the hate that exists online, but I have to protect my own mental health and my own artistry." The Daily Mail wrote the Che became one of "this year's most polarizing new TV characters." On the show, "Che forms a relationship with Miranda, that ends up being the catalyst for her split with longtime husband Steve (David Eigenberg) that has left many fans upset."

After their Tony-winning stint in "Spamalot," Ramirez took a role on "Grey's Anatomy." Colyar writes they played a "spunky orthopedic surgeon named Callie Torres. They met all of the show's high-drama twists and turns (plane crashes, car crashes, bus crashes) with enough charisma and 'Grey's' horniness to become a fan favorite. Callie came out as bisexual in the show's fourth season, in 2008. This was before Ramírez was ready to come out publicly themself, though they had been identifying as bi since their teenage years. They tell me they were partly responsible for the queer plotline." They left the show after 10 years to become more involved in social activism, but returned to television a year later "with 'Madam Secretary,' describing their role as foreign-policy adviser Kat Sandoval as somewhat therapeutic – this being 2017 and the series one on which all of the politicians are good people doing good in the world. Ramírez again made requests about their character's gender and sexuality: 'The no-makeup-makeup look, and my face as it is, no lashes, no nothing, and this hair. No dresses, no heels, no femme-expressing attire,' Ramírez recalls. CBS agreed, and they played the character for two seasons with masc gusto."

Two years later Michael Patrick King (who created both "Sex" and "And...") reached out to Ramirez, saying he was looking for a "butch or nonbinary person" to play Carrie Bradshaw's podcast boss – and to ruin Miranda's marriage.

"All of Ramírez and Nixon's scenes together quickly became GIF fodder – as when Che 'shotguns' weed into Miranda's mouth, or when Che fingers her in Carrie's kitchen, or when Miranda leaves her husband and shows up at Che's apartment door and announces, 'I was craving me some Che,' " writes Colyar. "Che is kind of a fuckboy, telling Miranda after their hookup, 'Hey, DM me if you wanna chill again soon, okay?' (Asked about that naughty finger bang, Ramírez says, much to the probable satisfaction of some intimacy coordinator somewhere, 'I felt very held, professionally. I felt safe.')"

"I'm an actor. I'm not the characters I play. I'm not Che Diaz," the actor tells Colya, who notes, "For the record, Ramírez's Instagram bio describes themself as 'abolicious' and a 'MexicanIrishNon-binaryHuman'."

They continues about their character: "I think there are people like Che out in the world, and I think that opinions about whether Che is representing an authentically queer person or not is not for me to answer... It's exciting to have Che be a disruption to the mainstream. We had been experiencing the mass mobilization for anti-racism for George Floyd, so being aware of how important disruption is, being aware of how important it is to wake people up from the sleep of their own comfort and privilege, was so important to me that summer."

Asked to respond to the social media comments on Che, they said: "Anybody who benefits from patriarchy is going to have a problem with Che Diaz."

Colyar also speaks with Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda, about the two characters' controversial love affair. "When I try to tell Nixon about some of my own mixed feelings, she asks, like a therapist, 'Do you want to unpack that to me?' " the journalist relates.

Colyar concludes: "Both actors seem to believe the reaction [to Che] has more to do with a societal discomfort around gender-nonconforming people, rather than a hope coming from actual queer people that we be portrayed as less lame."