Sara Ramirez isn’t too pleased with a recent article that compared them to their And Just Like That character, Che Diaz.
Ramirez, 47, took to Instagram on Tuesday, August 22, to slam a profile about them published via The Cut back in June.
“Been thinking long and hard about how to respond to The Hack Job’s article, ‘written’ by a white gen z non-binary person who asked me serious questions but expected a comedic response I guess (?),” Ramirez’s lengthy caption began.
They continued: “Here’s the good news: I have a dry sense of humor and a voice. And I am not afraid to use either. I trust that those of you who matter, who are not petulant children, who are smart enough to catch on to what was actually going on there, can perceive it for what it is: an attempt to mock my thoughtfulness and softness, while dismissing a valid existence and real human being in favor of tv show critiques that belonged elsewhere.”
Ramirez, who has also appeared on Grey’s Anatomy, went on to emphasize that they are “not the fictional characters I have played” and are therefore not “responsible for the things that are written for them to say.” Like Che, Ramirez is nonbinary and added that “we are living in a world that has become increasingly hostile toward anyone who dares to free themselves from the gender binary, or disrupt the mainstream.”
Ramirez’s comments came one day before the season 2 finale of And Just Like That and two months after the piece in question was published. In the profile, the article’s author, Brock Colyar, who is also nonbinary, characterized some of Ramirez’s comments during their meetup as “heavy-handed” and “very … Che Diaz.”
Later in the piece, Colyar wondered if they were being “uncharitable” to Ramirez by questioning whether the Madam Secretary alum was “in on the joke” of Che Diaz, a character who has been heavily criticized since the Sex and the City spinoff premiered in December 2021. (The Daily Beast called Che “the worst character on TV” in January 2022.)
Colyar then noted that both Ramirez and Cynthia Nixon, who plays Che’s love interest, Miranda Hobbes, dismissed their questions about Che’s unpopularity. (Ramirez told them that “anybody who benefits from patriarchy is going to have a problem with Che Diaz” while Nixon, 57, asked Colyar if they wanted to “unpack” their mixed feelings about the character.)
Colyar wrapped up the piece by asserting that “one thing is definitely different” about Ramirez and Che: while Che has a habit of smoking joints in public, Colyar didn’t feel right about offering Ramirez a hit of their joint as they strolled through Manhattan’s Central Park together. “I wasn’t sure they would get the joke, or think it funny,” Colyar wrote.
Ramirez disputed the characterization in their Instagram post, writing, “Further proof that this ‘writer’ knows little more about me than a Google search provides, I would have happily smoked that joint with them.”
Although Colyar has not addressed Ramirez’s comments about the profile, they’ve seemingly shown that they are unbothered by the criticism by sharing Ramirez’s post via their own Instagram Story and retweeting a Vanity Fair article about the controversy.
