Cynthia Nixon channels the personal to play a cancer patient PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Cynthia Nixon's portrayal of a woman and mother dying of cancer in the Sundance drama "James White" hit extremely close to home. Even when we're so ill and we're feeling terrible and we're wearing a nightgown that we've worn for three days, you still have on that bracelet or that ring or those earrings that make you feel like the person you used to be and not like a cancer patient. The brutal reality of his mother's illness and impending death grabs him by the throat the way nothing else could and sort of shakes him up and makes him get his priorities straight.