Rosie O’Donnell Op ‘And So,’ Ireland will pass to escape Trump

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for ‘Outlook Good’, season 3, episode 1 of ‘And Just Like That’, who now streams at HBO Max.

And so Rosie O’Donnell has made a spectacular return to comedy.

During the season premiere of “and Zo,” O’Donnell Mary, a woman who visits New York from the city that Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) records in a bar, plays in the expectation. Mary and Miranda share together one night in Mary’s hotel, but Mary lingers and pulled feelings for a comprehensible reason: she had been a virgin before she met Miranda. At home, in Winnipeg, Mary is a nun, and sexuality has been a closed part of her life. She continues to insist on Miranda to participate in various tourist staircase activities, and the pair finally reunits in Times Square, where Mary, a “bad” super fan, a little “for the good” sings to thank Miranda to show her what she really needed.

It is a juicy role, one of the classic one -night stands of the “Sex and the City” franchise, played by a comic actor who knows the territory. O’Donnell came out as Lesbienne in 2002, when her daily talk show ‘The Rosie O’Donnell Show’ was at the end. O’Donnell is located in a reflective mode prior to the performance in a one-feminine show based on her life at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. She hopes to visit production, but for now the Scottish city is a short journey from her current house in Ireland, where she moved in response to Donald Trump’s second term.

O’Donnell spoke against Variety About diving in the universe ‘Sex and the City’, which she has learned about herself while raising a non -bino two and how Ireland has suited her so far.

How are you?

I have questions about the names of your brothers and sisters.

The names of my brothers and sisters?

Are they all “D” s, like you?

No, I am the lucky one. My brothers and sisters are called Jane and Emily.

I kept thinking: Deirdre d’Addario, Danielle d’Addario …

Anyway, I assume it was Michael Patrick King who approached you for the role.

It was Cynthia. I am good friends with Cynthia Nixon, and my daughter was actually her assistant on the set for the last season of “Sex and” of “and just like that.” I call it “Sex and the City 2”, but it isn’t. She put her on there and then she said, “Michael told me that he has a role for you. Are you ready?” I said, “Are you joking? In a minute!” I didn’t even have to think about it.

I probably know Michael Patrick King for more than 30 years. When I was a young comedian, he was in a comic duo named King and Mindy – Lisa Mindy and Michael King. I always hung around with them at Catch a Rising Star and at the improvisation. It was quite surprising to see the people who started together, started so well.

Mary certainly has her peculiarities – how it felt it felt this Was the character written for you as soon as you read it?

I laughed at. I thought – I know how to play this character. I was very happy that I did all my scenes with Cynthia. It didn’t act for me. I don’t have to act in love with her, because I have been in love with her for many years. I saw her in “white” on Broadway, and although I had known her for many years and was friends with her in a real way, when I went backstage, I was impressed and I couldn’t find my words.

Have you known people like Mary who are isolated from their sexuality, even when they get older?

100%. I know many women who only come there in the forty, and how difficult it is when they set up a life with a man and children, and then they will realize this fundamental thing about themselves. I understand their fight. It was a recognizable character – someone who, for all the different reasons, was unable to have contact with who they were and then came to find the beauty that waits for the rest of her life.

It is a kind of comic version of Miranda’s later in life.

Yes! There must be humor – it saves us in life from very emotionally disturbing times. Comedy ultimately saves us all. You laugh that she is overly enthusiastic about seeing “wicked” for the 14th time. That was not difficult to play for me. Because all my great emotional moments can be found in the musicals of my life.

If you grew up with your talk show, on which you are enthusiastic about Broadway, and you now saw a few bars of “Wicked” on “and just saw” singing it was a full-circle moment.

I recently spoke with a triple Tony Award-winning producer from London who wants to help me get my one-wife show that I do in Edinburgh to tour and perhaps go to the West End. And hopefully when politics is more healthy, back to Broadway, what my dream would be to do a one -time show on Broadway. He told me that he grew up a gay boy in Texas, and the only exposure he had to Broadway was my show. When he saw it time and again, he knew he wanted his life to be. Now he is a Tony Award-winning producer.

I don’t care when people come to me in the thirty or 40 and say, “You really had an in -depth impact on my life.” It lets me know that there was a larger goal for what I did.

“Sex and the City” was a Zeitgeist show at the same time as your talk show. Did you ever come to you that you would be part of this universe?

No, because “Sex and the City” such a girl, with women -oriented show was in a way that I don’t have. You see these girls who have long hair and know how to put it in a sandwich; I miss that gene. There are girls who know how to dress to look suitable for their body shape, and I was never that girl. I put on boy’s clothing. I rode a motorcycle. I was definitely a small gay girl.

I have a little one who is not – binary – 12 years old – and it was the most interesting. They said to me, “Mama, I am not -binary. I am not a boy and I am not a girl.” I said, “Ok, fantastic.” They go: “My pronouns are they/them, and I wish they will be respected.” I will do my utmost, right? Who are they, reincarnated Harvey Milk?

And then they said, “Are you not -binair?” And I said, “Well, you know, honey, I am an OG -Lesbienne. I am a girl who knew I was a girl who would like a girl, but didn’t feel like a real girl. But I never wanted to be a boy. I never thought of boys. I always always thought of girls.” And then they said, “What did your class say when you told them?”

It is a whole new world.

Can you imagine it? They have no understanding of what it was like when I was 10 in 1972 and nobody called it. The word was not said – you would do that never Admit it. You would go to church and hear terrible things about people like you, and Billie Jean [King] and Martina [Navratilova] Had to reject their lesbianism and pretend that they were not gay to keep working on the tennis circuit, and that was so painful for me when I was a 10-year-old. They didn’t understand. I tried to explain to them what it was like when I was a child, and they are stunned.

I think back to you as a celebrity in the nineties-a lot of different time than today in terms of gay rights and now you on ‘and just’, proudly proud of loose ‘bad’ t-shirt. I imagine that the last is more comfortable.

It was really a strange time to get out of the closet for everyone in the show business who knew me personally – and in my life everyone knew and I had children. Once you have children, you’re gone! Because you go to the school meetings with your partner. I was out for everyone except the audience. And I often found it surprising that when I came out, people were surprised. “Well, you love Tom Cruise.” I didn’t want him naked in my bed! I wanted him to mow my lawn and give me a lemonade. How often do I have to say that?

I was very happy that you would also see yourself popping up on ‘hacks’ and played yourself. Are there other comedies where you are considering becoming a member?

I had to do an episode of ‘Poker Face’ just before I left. I hope I can do that, although I don’t know – with the current political climate, when would it be safe to come back with my child? I am not going to push it before this administration is fully completed and hopefully held responsible for their crimes.

How does life in Ireland suit you? Has it been a positive change?

Never, a moment since I arrived here, I have regretted my choice. People have been so hospitable, so accepting, and they have a different view of celebrity in culture here. They have no priority over other people. People are much friendlier and more intimate with each other in a real way. Every time I enter the pharmacy, I fall in love because the pharmacist talks to you. Have you ever spoken with a pharmacist at CVS?

Not really.

Every time I call my friends, “I think the pharmacist is in love with me.” But it’s a beautiful way of life. The smallness of this nation fits me very well.

This interview has been edited and condensed.