Pulled from real life. Despite fan criticism regarding Miranda Hobbes and Steve Brady’s romance on HBO Max’s And Just Like That, there was one point of reference that was important for actor David Eigenberg to include for authenticity.
“When [showrunner] Michael Patrick [King] reconnected with David Eigenberg about the show, the very first thing that David said was, ‘I got hearing aids.’ It was literally what he led with,” Elisa Zuritsky, one of the show’s writers, told Vanity Fair in an interview published on Thursday, January 13. “That actually wound up being Steve’s tone about his aging [in the show].”
When the series premiered in December 2021, the 57-year-old Sex and the City alum’s character returned as the faithful husband to Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda — this time with a new accessory.
“I got hearing aids, I’m an old-timer now,” Steve tells Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) in the first episode after the two men greeted each other outside Harry’s daughter’s piano recital.
Miranda disagrees with her spouse, exclaiming that he’s “not” an old man just yet. “You only have 60 percent hearing loss in one ear and 40 percent in the other,” she jokes.
His trouble with hearing isn’t the only challenge Steve has faced in his long marriage to the lawyer, with whom he shares teenage son Brady (Niall Cunningham). After Miranda’s controversial affair with Che Diaz (Sara Ramierez), viewers argued that Steve deserves better.
“Everyone on the show, every single person, loves David Eigenberg as a human being,” Zuritsky told the outlet. “We love him as an actor. We love Steve. We are really invested in the Steve-ness of him. He’s so full of life, and the Steves out there are good guys.”
Another writer, Julie Rottenberg, noted: “But Miranda’s journey is representing another reality out there, which a lot of people go through — the reevaluations and transitions in life. Grown couples grow apart, and people come to epiphanies about what their spouse is or isn’t fulfilling for them. Miranda’s story was very representative of a certain path that a lot of women find themselves on.”
The Killing Eleanor actor — who joined the original HBO series in season 2 — previously gushed over his “scary” return to his role as the lovable bartender.
“It’s been 20 years since the TV show almost,” Eigenberg told Us Weekly exclusively at the revival’s December 2021 premiere. “I’ve always been an in and out guy. I say that on Sex and the City, I pop in and pop out, so I was trying to find my sea legs a little bit. But it was fun, we snapped back into it. It’s always great seeing the same lovely faces. … There’s a lot of love [between Miranda and Steve]. There really is, and they’ve raised a great kid and the horizon holds the future and we’ll see where they go.”
New episodes of And Just Like That premiere on HBO Max every Thursday.
