Sex and the City’s Tweety Bird tattoo guy has become a Gen Z heartthrob

Sex and the City’s Tweety Bird tattoo star Ian Kahn has reflected on becoming a Gen Z heartthrob amid a new wave of show fanatics.

On 1 April, the ultra-loved, raunch yet heartwarming series – starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, and Kristin Davis – made its way onto Netflix, widening its cult following to include a younger generation of television addicts. Though the discourse has been quite skewed in terms of lovers versus haters, one thing’s for sure: Gen Z can’t get Ben – the politics magazine editor with the tattoo of Tweety on his shoulder – out of their heads.

Played by Kahn, 51, the classic ‘90s “sweet boy” with round spectacles only appears in one season two episode entitled “Freak Show”. But his 30-minute feature has sent fans into a frenzy over him. Kahn may no longer be working in Hollywood, yet his SATC character has brought him right back into the limelight.

Next to side-by-side screenshots of Kahn from his SATC cameo, one enamored fan on X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote: “He is soooo boyfriend shaped... boys just don’t look like this anymore.”

Three days after the show’s release on Netflix, another starstruck viewer pleaded: “Ben from the second season of Sex and the City come SAVE MEEEE.”

“Remember Ben, the politics magazine editor Carrie dates (and fumbles) in season two of Sex and the City? He’s a Democratic political communications consultant now. I regret to inform you he’s just as perfect as his SATC character, if not more so,” a third X user said.

In an 18 April interview with Rolling Stone, Kahn opened up about his role as “Ben” and what becoming a “sex symbol among Gen Z years after” meant to him.

Kahn started by admitting he had the biggest crush on Parker before he found out about the part.

“I was terribly young for this part. But I had such a crush on Sarah Jessica Parker growing up watching her on Square Pegs, that my agent called me,” he explained. “So I met him at like seven at night and he was like, ‘I got something for you, bub,’ because that’s how he talks. And I said, ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘It’s to play Sarah Jessica Parker’s boyfriend on Sex and the City.’”

Initially, the reaction to his character wasn’t anything notable. Kahn remembers people recognising him but not knowing “where they know me from”. There were also fans of the show that knew it was him, even without the prop glasses he wore as Ben.

Now, Ben has become a whole new beast, and the character idolised as the “ideal boyfriend”.

“I think it’s nice. He’s a really good character. He wasn’t perfect because nobody’s perfect. But he was kind. And I think it’s sweet,” Kahn confessed. “I’ll say this: I think it’s great that people could look at somebody who is an authentically kind man and see the upside of that, that people still do want to be in relationships where it’s about kindness and empathy and love because he was a thoughtful guy.

“I like that women want to meet men who are kind, and not just strong and not just tough, because it’s not our way forward to show our best selves at all,” he continued. “[We] need to elevate how we care for each other in this world to survive as a species, really. We’re at an inflection point in how we handle ourselves moving forward. And kindness is the way.”