The last time I spoke to Nicole Kidman was “Sunday Morning” a few years ago. Nothing has happened since then. Just kidding! Kidman is in the midst of a “golden era” after winning an Emmy Award for her role in the television series “Big Little Lies.”
Just two of her recent projects are the TV series “The Perfect Couple” with Liev Schreiber. “Special Ops: Lioness” starring Zoe Saldaña.
Is this sense of the fleeting nature of time part of the reason for her prolific output? “Yeah, probably,” Kidman said.
She remains one half of country great Keith Urban. But Kidman is getting the most attention these days with a movie coming out on Christmas Day…and what a movie it is. In Baby Girl, Kidman plays a happily married, successful CEO, but in some ways unfulfilled, and a handsome intern who knows how to scratch his own unique itch (“Baby Girl”). Harris Dickinson, who directed the film Triangle of Grief.
“Have you ever thought, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do it?'” I asked.
“Yes, yes. And a lot of it is stamina, because I’m in every frame of the movie,” she replied.
To watch the trailer for “Babygirl,” click on the video player below.
Kidman is committed to working more with female directors, and in Halina Lane’s hands, the film is intense and unrelenting.
I asked: “What do you think are some of the reasons you do the work you do?”
“Strange?” Kidman offered.
“Well…that’s weird, right? Is that where I was trying to do it?”
“You can tell me!”
“Do you think part of what makes you a great actor is your ability to feel intensely?”
“Maybe what I have is the ability to really feel,” Kidman said. “I go to the hospital. Keith and I work everywhere…he brings his guitar and we’re just in the oncology ward. And I don’t care about other people’s emotions. It must not be absorbed.”
“Because that’s your tendency? Do you tend to do that?”
“Yeah. And Keith always said, ‘You’re like a raw egg that I have to put on a shell.'”
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Kidman doesn’t seem all that vulnerable, but when she’s not working as a global superstar, she has a full-fledged family life. In fact, her daily life with Keith and their two daughters at her home in Nashville may be very similar to yours. “We eat breakfast together every morning so I’m awake even when I’m working. Then it’s dinner. I also like to put on my jammies and go home.”
“Are you a stay-at-home person?”
“Yes, I’ll wear bed socks. But we have a rule: You can’t put on your pajamas before 5 p.m.”
“Why is there that rule?”
“Because if you don’t, you’ll be able to join earlier, and that’s not a good thing!”
However, Kidman says there was a time when she seriously considered quitting acting altogether and becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom. She said that after giving birth to her daughter Sunday in 2008, “I thought, ‘Well, I feel like I’m almost done.'” When I moved to Nashville and was living on a farm, my mom said, “I’m not going to give up completely.” And I’m like, “No, I’m done.” She said, ‘Listen to me and keep moving forward. I’m not saying you have to do it to the level you’ve been doing it, but I’m not going to give it up completely. there is no.”
Kidman went on to make some of the best films of her career, and in April of this year, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. That night, her friend Meryl Streep served as the honorable host and said of Nicole: It’s difficult for me! ”
Kidman said the honor felt strange. “Because at first I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want this right now. Does that mean I’m done with it?'”
But for Kidman, who has already been nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in Baby Girl, this year’s stratospheric high was tempered by a devastating loss. Her mother, Janelle, died in September at the age of 84 while Kidman was on her way to the movies. “Baby Girl” will be screened at the Venice International Film Festival.
I asked Kidman, “Did you tell her what it was?”
“Yes, she knew. She knew everything,” she answered. “That’s probably the biggest loss. Losing someone who knows everything and loves you anyway. I love when people say, ‘There are no limits to your grief. There’s no need to put a deadline on it. You don’t have to be better by this time.” So you’re always allowed to let it pass in waves… People think, “Well, whatever.” But this is my mom, this is my life, and I’m allowed to process and grieve as I please. ”
“Yes, there is no time limit. And there are waves.”
“Yeah, that’s weird.”
“And you never know when that will happen.”
“Oh, it’s like a different path,” Kidman said. “When my dad died, I think it’s good to talk about everything because that’s what so many people around the world are going through, but to have my parents gone was a whole different thing. It’s just that. “I was like, ‘Oh, I get it, that’s great.'”
“But that’s okay. And thank you for sharing that. Because, like you said, people -“
“Hurry up!” Kidman laughed. “I’m so embarrassed!”
Kidman may keep her emotions within easy reach, and that’s not a bad thing. In the same faces where you might see torrents of anger and sadness, you can just as easily see happiness and hope.
I asked her. “Do you feel like this is the moment? All these awards, festivals, some hit TV series, do you feel like this is the moment?”
“No,” Kidman replied. “I’m just me. But I’m completely awake because so many different things have happened over the years and I’m fully aware of where I am. I’m in this world. I think so.” I love the word wonder because there’s still so much wonder and excitement about what’s to come. ”
Check out our in-depth interview with Nicole Kidman.
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Burnero.
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