Nicole Kidman: The diverse life of a Hollywood legendary actress
Nicole Kidman, the Oscar-winning Hollywood actress, talks to us about her upcoming Netflix thriller The Perfect Couple, her diverse filmography, her charity work, and her obsession with horror movies.
Nicole Kidman is probably one of the few movie stars who can switch from a commercial movie like Aquaman to an art film like The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Even this transition process is not difficult for her, and it can be said that she is quite proficient in this transition. Because of this, she was invited by AMC Theatres to star in a new commercial because she has the ability to rekindle the love of movies for audiences around the world.
With all the hype surrounding We come to this place for magic, and the skepticism she’s heard, that’s the last thing Kidman wants to talk about during this interview. Instead, we’ll focus on her illustrious career and upcoming projects, including the 2024 Netflix original American crime miniseries The Perfect Couple opposite Liev Schreiber, which will be released on September 5, and the erotic thriller Babygirl, which will be released on December 20 this year, in collaboration with Harris Dickinson and Antonio Banderas.
On the day we met online, Kidman, 57, immediately emerged as an observant, curious interviewee. She was fascinated by the art in the background of my house, which I rented on Fire Island for the weekend. Kidman quickly told me that she had visited this LGBTQ mecca twice. "Have you ever been to the wild parties?" I told her that I had been there several times alone that weekend alone. "That's how it is," she said. Kidman's second visit to Fire Island was to drive to the party on Fourth of July. "I got a lot of love," she recalled. Can you imagine walking down Fire Island's boulevard and suddenly running into Nicole Kidman? "I wore a hat," she said, laughing, as if a hat could be an effective disguise for one of the most recognizable movie stars.
Kidman has recently been in high-profile TV roles including Big Little Lies, Expats, The Undoing and the upcoming The Perfect Couple. Based on Elin Hilderbrand's novel of the same name, The Perfect Couple stars Kidman as famous novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, one of whose sons is getting married to Amelia Sacks, played by Eve Hewson. On the day of the wedding, a body washes up on the beach and everyone becomes a suspect, including Greer. "I love the feature format because I love developing characters and I love the limitations of it," Kidman said. "You don't have to invest a ton of time into it, but it still feels like a movie. It's more of a slow burn than a movie, and you only have two hours to tell your story and develop a character." The Perfect Couple reunites Kidman with director Susanne Bier, who they previously worked on HBO's The Undoing. Returning to the upcoming series, Kidman described Greer: "Greer is amazing, she's strong, she's like a mother bear, she's very protective of her boys, she's very smart, she's very complex. I love her inscrutable persona, she's a survivor, and she's also a terrifying person."
Looking back at Kidman's career, she has almost all the honors of a film actor. She has been nominated for five Oscars and won once (Best Actress in 2003 for "The Hours"); nominated for 17 Golden Globe Awards and won 6 times; and won two Emmy Awards for the hit HBO series "Big Little Lies". In addition to her acting work, Kidman has served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 1994, an ambassador for UN Women since 2006, and a brand ambassador for Balenciaga. She lives in Sydney, Nashville and New York with her country singer husband Keith Urban and their two daughters Sunday and Faith, but Kidman is not often at home.
"I love to travel, even though a lot of people might not like it," Kidman said. "My kids love to travel, too, but maybe they'll be less willing to do that as they get older. But they're very interested in the world. They told me that their passports have more stamps than most people in their 80s because they lived in Morocco when they were little. I shot Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert there, and then we went to the Algerian desert, where they rode camels and spent three and a half months in the souks. They've lived in France, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Asia, Vietnam, Hong Kong."
Whether it is charity work or filming in different countries, Kidman believes that her work is part of her experience of the world, global education and culture. She said: "It gives me an empathetic heart and gives me the opportunity to touch people's lives, otherwise I can't touch these. I read a lot of documentaries and articles. I don't think it's a good thing to only know my own field. My growth process is to constantly understand, learn and perceive different perspectives. This may be the reason why I love traveling. It allows me to better understand how people view the relationship between their own country and the world. I am teaching my children that work is not just about myself. "I once read a very interesting article about a woman who donated a kidney, but her friends didn't recognize it, which caused a rift between them. When you do things in a charitable or dedicated way, you don't expect anything in return. I feel deeply that our responsibility and purpose in the world is to help others, not to get others' praise." This is also why Kidman finds it difficult to accept the humanitarian award. She said: "That feeling makes people uncomfortable. No matter when you have to show up, because it means more people will donate, or more people will pay attention to this topic. This is not something you can do on your own."
Kidman also believes that film has the opportunity to have a positive impact on the world. After playing Celeste Wright, a domestic violence survivor in Big Little Lies, she gained a deeper understanding and empathy for people who have experienced domestic violence. She was also inspired by her role as Nancy Eamons, a preacher's wife, in Boy Erased, whose son (Lucas Hedges) was undergoing conversion therapy. "It's a very small film, but for me it's an important film," she said. "Did it get all the glory? No, but it definitely changed the way people think about conversion therapy. I've had so many people come up to me and say, 'Thank you, you helped my family with that film.' It's not easy to interpret certain characters, but it's an extraordinary experience." She continued, "The film is so ingrained in my mind that I can dream about scenes from it and say to myself, 'I was there, that was me.' I lived in those mountains, in the desert, in a tent, I might ride a camel or hike in Belfast, things that other people don't get to do. I once hiked through the Swedish forests in the dead of winter with Lars von Trier (2003). "I've seen them build railways in the deep forests of Thailand (in 2013's The Railway Man) and I've thought, 'Have I ever been here before? '"
In her acceptance speech at the American Film Institute (AFI) in April, Kidman named nearly every director she had worked with during her career. Kidman tells me that she initially wanted to name all the countries she’s filmed in, but that might have been a bit too much, and she’s quick to apologize for some of the directors she accidentally left out: “There were a lot of directors on the list, and I left out a few. I left out James Wan, and that was a big blow to me.” She worked with James Wan on 2018’s Aquaman and its 2023 sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, both superhero films that are closer to Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Kidman’s first foray into the DC Universe.
Some people think that with her acting prowess, Kidman should avoid such roles, so what made her want to take the plunge? Regarding Batman Forever, Kidman recalled: "Everyone asked me, 'Why did you do this?' I said, 'Because I can kiss Batman!'" For Kidman, it was all about trying something she had never done before: "It wasn't about the money." She said: "Mainstream blockbusters also have a unique charm." In fact, when James Wan first approached her about Aquaman, she thought she would star in a horror movie: "I really wanted to work with him in a horror movie."
Kidman has starred in several psychological thrillers, such as The Others and Stoker. I mentioned Stoker as her favorite, and she responded, "It's a profound entry point, and few people mention Stoker. I love the director Park Chanwook, and that monologue in the movie is why I chose to do this film." It's not surprising that intense monologues are a temptation for any actor. For example, in the opera scene presented in Birth, the camera lingers on Kidman's face for two minutes, and she can perfectly convey the sadness of the emotion just by looking at it. Kidman always has a special talent for expressing strong emotions. "In The Northman, director Robert Eggers used only one shot to shoot one scene, which was the scene about seduction between me and Alexander Skarsgård. I really liked that scene." Capturing and loving emotions are also the keys to her increasingly sophisticated acting skills.
“I feel things very, very, very deeply,” Kidman said. “My mom always said I was a highly sensitive child. Part of my path was learning not to feel too much for other people and destroy or damage my mental health because I have a very strange way of being able to sense what’s going on in other people. It’s like a magical power that I can show, whether it’s physical or emotional, and it can be scary sometimes.” In the upcoming film Babygirl, Kidman plays a CEO who becomes embroiled in a forbidden relationship with a young employee (Harris Dickinson), which is “very difficult” because the emotions involved are “very deep.” She talks about working on a show like The Perfect Couple as a way to balance it out, “otherwise it’s very draining and I can’t do it continuously.”
Kidman also loves drama. Although she hasn't performed on stage since Photograph 51 in 2015, she still looks forward to it. "I want to do something on stage, but I have to choose carefully now because I don't want to get sick or be physically exhausted and unable to function normally. I need to assess my energy and do what I can. Maybe it's like Lawrence Olivier once said, "trying to act." Yes, I am acting now, and at the same time, when a part of my heart resonates with the right role, it will also generate strong emotions related to it. They will embrace everything that the role brings, which makes me feel a little scared, so I have to be careful."
You might think horror isn’t a very popular genre, but to our surprise, one of Kidman’s favorites is horror. When I asked her to recommend some horror movies, she quickly responded, “Have you seen Talk to Me from Australia?” I nodded in the affirmative and told her how scary I thought it was. Kidman said, “I haven’t done a classic, hardcore horror movie yet, so I put it on the list of things to do because I love hardcore horror movies and I’m a fan of Ti West!” We were brought together by a magical “magic” and for Kidman, her next “magic” might make us shudder.
CREDITS
Global Chief Content Officer GIAMPETRO BAUDO
Editor-In-Chief of L'Officiel USA CAROLINE GROSSO
Photography MATTHEW BROOKES
Styling JASON BOLDEN
Casting LAUREN TABACH
Hair ADIR ABERGEL, A-FRAME AGENCY
Makeup KATE SYNOTT, THE WALL GROUP
Digital Tech STOWE RICHARDS
Photo Assistants KURT MANGNUM, KENDALL PACK, ARDEN CORE and JOHN MUMBLO
Props JAMIE DEAN
Producer MICHAEL POWER
Production Assistants DAVID RUIZ and KIYANA TEHRANI
Styling Assistants DANIEL SEPULVEDA and JOHN MUMBLO
