Was Nicole Kidman fired from three films because of her frozen face?

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Even though Nicole Kidman’s face still isn’t moving, I’ve been feeling some pangs of affection and adoration for her. She’s been showing a little personality lately, and her hair is back to bright red, and hey, we’ve got to start somewhere. Next up on my list for Nicole would be for her to stop doing that to her face. Whatever it is. Botox? I have no idea. My guess is that it’s something more hardcore than simple injections of Botox, but I don’t know for sure and people hate when I guess.

Anyway, Star Magazine has this interesting little mini-tidbit about some of the roles Nicole was up for recently… that she didn’t get. Apparently, some Hollywood producers are really afraid that if they hire Nicole, they’re just going to get some stiff, frozen performance:

Blame it on the Botox? After bad reviews for her stiff performance in the flop musical Nine, Nicole Kidman has been dropped from three films: Bel Mai, Monte Carlo, and a remake of the Marilyn Monroe classic How to Marry a Millionaire.

“Nicole’s not aging gracefully, and it’s hurting her chances in Hollywood,” says Michael Levine of LCO, a public relations firm.

But it’s not all bad – Nicole is set to star in The Danish Girl, playing the first man to get a sex change operation.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, February 1, 2010]

Now, is it because of the frozen face, or because Nicole has been a consistent box office flop for several years now? Which came first, the chicken of the egg? Because I think the audience started to leave Nicole around the time she started doing that junk to her beautiful face.

I also did a little research to see if Nicole was actually attached to these projects at some point. At one point, this past fall, she was attached to Bel Ami (with Robert Pattinson), but ended up pulling out/being fired last November. Monte Carlo is a project Nicole was not only supposed to star in, but produce. And it’s still listed on Nicole’s IMDB page, so who knows? And as for the How To Marry a Millionaire remake, Nicole is still tentatively attached to that too, according to IMDB. But I hope that one doesn’t even get made. I love the original. How the f-ck could you do better than Marilyn, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable? Seriously?

Nicole at the Globes on January 17, 2010. Credit: WENN and Fame Pictures.

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60 Responses to “Was Nicole Kidman fired from three films because of her frozen face?”

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  1. irishserra says:

    I, too, Love Nicole. But I really hate the way she does her makeup, as well. The bright cheeks is a bit much.

  2. Kevin says:

    Don’t know if it’s true or not, but word on the street is that when Nicole was axed from the first film she cried inconsolably. Unfortunately, she couldn’t even show real emotion with her taught lifeless face. The only way you could tell she was crying was the noise she made and the tears squirting out from her eyes vertically upwards like a windshield washer.

  3. Raven says:

    Agree about Millionaire–loved the original.

    I’m a fan of Kidman and it appears from that photo that she still has a bit of Botox brow. However, lots of bad anti-aging treatments are the antithesis of aging badly. I agree that if she stopped the weird treatments and focused on a health/vitamin regimen, she could stay young for many years. I am a natural redhead who is many years older than Kidman and who is still gets guessed as many years younger than my chronologocal age. Those vitamins and healthy foods are worth every penny.

  4. Uzi says:

    Whether their relationship was genuine or arranged, Tom and Nicole definitely had charisma as a couple that translated into box office success for both. Once they split the “magic” was gone, and neither has seen the success from the old days. Nicole, although talented, is now just another actress. I call her the “human icicle” because of her frigid personality and frozen face.

  5. Sumodo says:

    …and Sandra Bullock looks so good! Do you think Nicole Kidman lied about her age when she came to the States? She claims 42. Bullock claims 45. Just an observation.

  6. lin234 says:

    I’m a fan of Nicole’s too but I have to wonder if she’s also gotten a boob job? She used to blow away the competition with her dresses at awards time but her boobs have been looking very stiff and lopsided lately.

  7. anon says:

    i really like nicole (probably a hangover from practical magic which i love) but she is ruining her face. 🙁 sad

  8. wow says:

    Nicole is such a talented actress. I’ve liked a lot of her movies. I think her movies as of late haven’t been the best because she seems to be just taking whatever she can get as oppose to picking roles she can properly pull off. The prime roles are not going to her anymore and she doesn’t have a husband with Hollywood clout (which is what Tom had in is hey-day).

    And I think Michael Levine’s comment about aging gracefully in Hollywood is a bit of an oxy-moron. You can’t age gracefully in Hollywood as a woman uness you’re Meryl Streep or in some cases Diana Keaton.

    OT: Sandra Bullock is 45? Really? She looks awesome. So I’ll ammend my statement and say you can’t age gracefully in Hollywood unless you move out of LA all together and have a good head on your shoulders.

  9. d says:

    Talk about wrecking your face. I’m sure some of it may come from being a new mom, but again with the bad makeup, the looking s***, the botox or whatever. She has to go back to a natural look, bring back the red, the curl, the natural make up, etc. She’s been looking wrecked for quite some time now. Needs a new stylist.

  10. Tazina says:

    If she actually had wrinkles, there would be a lot of negative remarks on that too, how she’s looking old and tired, washed up, time to retire, etc. etc. Really, aging Hollywood actresses can’t win no matter what they do.

  11. Essie says:

    I think producers have been turned off by Nicole’s face for years now but the REAL dislike happened after “Australia.” Even the Aussies were mad at her for ruining that film. If Cate B. had starred, I bet the movie would have been a big hit. I tried to watch it (because I love Hugh Jackman) but I couldn’t get even 20 minutes into it. Her face was just awful looking and she couldn’t express even the slightest emotion. Now, the same thing has happened in “Nine.” No way will a Hollywood producer spend big bucks to cast her. She ruins every movie she’s in. I don’t know how she will be able to play a man!! Maybe she’ll put on another fake big nose!!

    I was a big fan of Nicole after seeing “Dead Calm” years ago. I used to go to all her movies but not lately. The most recent film of hers that I watched on video, besides “Australia” was “Golden Compass” and it was horrible!! Just awful. I think there were supposed to be sequels to this but she looked so awful and the movie bombed so badly, nobody wanted to put any money into sequels.

  12. tiki says:

    nicole’s various reactions to this post:
    shock :-]

    dismay :-]

    anger :-]

    hurt :-]

    amusement :-]

  13. Maritza says:

    She could always do sci-fi or ghost movies, just saying…

  14. la chica says:

    her best work was in “to die for”. it’s been downhill ever since IMHO.

  15. Ice Bunny says:

    Kaiser, I always love your take on things. I find myself ALWAYS agreeing with you. I like Nicole too.. but for me, I have to say her face doesn’t bother me. I could care less if she can furrow her brow or not. I think, and always have thought, she is stunning – even though she looks nothing like she did when she started out. (remember her in Dead Calm.. tight-curly red hair.. thin lips.. boy body..)

    Anyway, I love her, always will. When you hear her speak, she is always classy, kind, and smart.

  16. Ice Bunny says:

    ps.. Hey Raven.. which vitamins and foods in particular do you swear by?? Especially those that you think help your skin and anti-aging?

  17. Ally says:

    @la: I thought she was wonderful in “The Others”, too. A truly creepy movie, terrific portrayal of a difficult part (and one that most actresses would have reduced to empty hysteria). That was the movie she was shooting as she and Cruise broke up.

    I think “The Hours” (the one she won the Oscar for) was after that (but honestly I think that Oscar was more of an Uglyifing Prosthesis Award). I thought she was pretty plastic (visually and in terms of acting) in “Moulin Rouge”, too.

    Her vibe has gotten oddly removed and sexless since the breakup with the dwarfy Cruise. Even “The Interpreter”, where she was almost good, she just comes off as too “removed”. I guess she’s been scared of showing age and vulnerability. That Keith Urban certainly doesn’t seem to have helped breathe life back into her onscreen persona.

  18. k says:

    I mostly hate the injections in the lips. Thicker lips does not always = prettier.

  19. Alec says:

    She needs to learn how to act. She is so fake it hurts. Everyone knows she was a beard for GMD and he gave her all the power. Now she left GMD, the POWER is going. She is married to another beard with her fake biological baby ppl do not respect her anymore. They are also not sending her the best scripts anymore cos nobody is scared of her in Hollywood anymore. She should option some good novels and make them into movies. I think her career will be over in 5YRS and her true story will be on some MTV Channel.

  20. archiepelago says:

    She was fired off of at least one movie before this because of her diva behavior but since she was still a box office draw, it was put down to a ‘knee injury’. An ‘injury’ is code in Hollywood to cover up the fact that many stars are ass clowns and sometimes, just sometimes, there are directors who see their movie as more important than the name carrying it. Those are the directors whose movies generally do well time after time because they have vision.

    I have heard some pretty interesting stuff about her.

  21. CC says:

    My god this woman is vain. She used to be beautiful, Now her forehead look heavy and her face so frozen and frigid. She just looks totally odd.

    How many years have people been saying for her to cool it with the botox. Her lips look ridiculous as well. She must live in a bubble.

    Maybe she did something that’s irreversible and so, she’s stuck looking that way? Sad. Her career will suffer for it.

    She never should have done anything. Plenty of actresses her age and older that still look great, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Sharon Stone, to name just a few.

  22. Kitty2000 says:

    They’re remaking How to Marry a Millionaire??? No, no, no! Just no!

  23. michellllle says:

    Always thought NK was charming. As for the current state of her face, peculiar blush aside, I’m not seeing much difference from the other photos of wrinkle free celebs on the same page; Jolie, Roberts, Parker, Garner, Aniston, etc.

    Perhaps it’s bc I’m not very framiliar w/ Botox & the like. Or perhaps it’s bc said lack of movement is impossible to see in stills. Regardless, I wonder whether the jacked-up look people are referring to is a simple case of her simply not aging well, with or w/o the help. Especially if the above mentioned celebs are also guilty of the same practices. Despite money & excessive beauty regimes, being a very fair red head from Australia can’t be easy. The less pigment, the more delicate usually.

    The real shame however would be remaking ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’. Remaking classics is criminal! Just look what they did to ‘Sabrina’, ’12 Angry Men’, ‘Auntie Mame’, ‘Street Car’, etc. By messing with perfection one can’t help but exemplify their inferiority. Recently I heard there’s a remake of ‘Inherit the Wind’…disgusting.

  24. annie says:

    This is so sad. I have met her. She is a sweet person. I wish she wouldn’t do the frozen face thing. Something makes me think her self-confidence took a hit around her divorce and that is when her acting took a hit as well. I wish her good luck.

  25. Joe says:

    Michael Levine is a moron and his firm reps nobody.

    He’s a nobody.

  26. H says:

    You know I have only seen stills the last few years of her and tonight I was watching the Haiti telethon and she came out I realized what everyone was talking about, the top half of her face didn’t move. It freaked me out. I still like her but its freaky. She should quit the botox.

  27. Gabby says:

    What are those splotches on her face? or is that the camera? She may be getting Botox on forehead and around her nose. Botox freezes any expressions that go from your nose up. That’s really sad too. She was really cute when she was younger. But I have to agree. Sandra Bullock still looks great! One of the few real actresses that hasn’t altered her looks. It’s sad that women in Hollywood feel the need to make themselves look freakish in order to feel better about themselves. There comes a time to hang up the hat and let the new generation take over.:)

  28. noonoo says:

    I have heard her interviewed and she is smart and warm and goofy and unpretentious but very very shy. I have seen shots of her looking at her husband and she certainly seems to convey alot of emotion in them…she clearly adores him and thinks hes the hottest thing ever. Anyhoo…compared to many others in Hollyweird I think shes a good egg and just needs to pick some good roles. ‘Australia’ was bad in lots of ways…Cate would not have saved it.

  29. coucou says:

    Sometimes i’m glad i can’t afford Botox, who knows? Cindy Crawford admitted to starting it in her 20’s, can you imagine? With over 20 years of usage, she can be our beauty guinea pig. I guess Nicole’s the same, she probably started out in small doses and got hooked on more and more. It must be a very weird world they live in…but i doubt they’d trade it for ours, even if they complain about it from time to time. Anyway, i know someone who sat next to Nicole at a benefit, and he said she was definitely a stone-cold ice maiden, and not just because she looks frozen. Fear usually freezes people, so the outer is just reflecting the inner. I hear she’s very controlling and involved when starring in a film, which isn’t exactly welcome all the time, especially by the producers with God complexes. Anyway, her daughter is adorable and I’d wager she’s happy in her private life, doing everything she can to keep the intruders at bay, hence the ice maiden stance. I liked her a lot in Moulin Rouge.

  30. Jeane says:

    I’m pretty sure Sandra Bullock has had some work done as well. There is not an actress in Hollywood over the age of 30 who hasn’t done something to her face, whether it’s botox, fillings, peelings, a small eye lift, etc. The key is to keep it modest and natural. Nicole clearly went overboard.

  31. battlefield says:

    Where did it all go so wrong? She had public support and some great roles – Moulin, Hours, Others. She must know that it’s the actresses that let nature take it’s course – Dench, Mirren, Loren – that are the legends. Even Bardot looks like a Shar Pei these days, but it hasn’t tainted her legacy.

    Step away from the Botox needle!!!!

  32. I’m not a big fan of Nicole Kidman or that dress she’s wearing. Loved your title! Very funny.

  33. Tess says:

    Celebs sometimes catch on because a movie they make connects with aspects of their own personality and the public responds to how “real” the performance is.

    For me, that explains why so many people consider “To Die For” Kidman’s breakout movie.

    The character she played was robotic, cold, remote, (murderously) ambitious for fame, focussed on her appearance, etc…

    Kidman, to a lesser extent, projects these qualities and its hard to fully buy into her as a normal, regular woman on screen.

  34. mila says:

    It’s funny with her. Sometimes she’s wonderful, skilled actress (Others, Moulin Rouge, Hours, Dogville), sometimes she’s even worse than Sharon Stone(Austalia). But I hope she will find her way and stay off botox for a wgile. And no please don’t make How to Marry a Millionaire, it’s too good to be treated that way!Just look what they did to Women!

  35. Sunflower says:

    Real people don’t do that stuff to their face… Send the money to Haiti!!!

  36. Whitey Fisk says:

    Who has been doing her makeup recently? The blush on her right cheek is funky, and there’s a huge swoosh of blush or something on the right side of her chin. Curiously, in another recent post she had a strange makeup situation that somebody should have told her about before she went in front of the camera.

    Link to Kaiser’s post – http://tinyurl.com/ydeyu7s

    I guess Simon Wilson is doing her makeup! (Please tell me someone watched Hannibal Buress on John Oliver’s show the other night…)

    P.S. Do you still have feeling in your skin where you get botox? I know you can’t move those muscles, but does it numb the area too?

  37. snowball says:

    Oh god, don’t compare her to that moron, Sharon Stone.

    “Real people don’t do that stuff to their face?”

    Really? Because I know a couple dozen women who are real and do Botox. Several of them are hugely into charity work (one is a local television anchor).

    Wasn’t it just this past week when we saw Nicole singing and being a goof in a tribute to Simon Baker? And the comments were how pretty and real she looked. Yet stick a still picture of her up and she gets absolutely sacked with nasty comments about her face and by proxy, her acting.

    She looks like she has insanely sensitive skin (like a lot of redheads, myself included), so all the talk about how pasty and waxy she looks are a little silly. Her forehead is her own issue and like many other people have said, how many women in Hollywood have the same unmoving forehead? She just gets ragged on the most because her forehead is so big to begin with. If she had bangs, she’d look better.

    As far as her acting goes, I don’t really believe she was fired for being a diva. I’ve never ever heard anyone come out and say she’s awful to work with. If she’s lost projects for whatever reason, she’s hardly the first person and won’t be the last. Demi Moore couldn’t act her way out of a Kleenex – haven’t seen her work much lately and she’s had at least double the amount of plastic surgery Nicole’s had.

  38. Seer says:

    I saw her when she was a frizzy haired red head, and I think she looked much better when she she died her hair blonde and worked on her face. She looked very good when she Molin. Now, her hair color is too dark, her make-up is too harsh for her face, some jerk kissed her cheek and rubbed their make-up on her, and the face is so tight she looks unnatural and frankly, like a Who from Whoville.

  39. Stan says:

    Used to be totally in love with her but I agree the years have not been kind. I suppose it could be worse though.

  40. traxie says:

    Am I the only person who thinks she looks weirdly like Amy Adams in that photo? Must be the hair and the tiny, pristine features!

  41. traxie says:

    PS I do and I don’t buy the theory that being married to TC got her good scripts. It’s not exactly working for Katie Holmes, is it. Plus all Nicole’s best roles were won after the divorce.

  42. Marsha says:

    Does she still make films? I thought that she only did awards shows and adverts. I agree with whoever said that her career has gone the same way as Demi Moore’s. Too much plastic surgery (Nicole’s got new boobs!) and too little talent. Thank God for Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett.

  43. degree of sanity says:

    I’ve always wondered something:

    If you, a regular Jane or Joe, heard somebody say something negatively about you (i.e., “Her mascara is so clumpy.” or “His ties never match,”), Wouldn’t you seriously think about it? And perhaps tweak a thing or two to fix the problem?

    Call me vain, but I would think twice about which tie I was going to wear or try a new mascara brand.

    SO why then do celebs, who KNOW what is being said about them and are vain (duh), comtinue to do things they know make them look bad or lose fans/audience etc.?

    I don’t get it. Are they really that naive/stuck-up/in their own little world?

    I guess I just answer my own question.

  44. mouth.like.a.sailor says:

    @Snowball- Right on! i feel almost exactly the same way!!!!!

    i also LOVED her in The Others, i thought it was a terrific movie and i thought she was absolutely perfect for the part..a strong, slightly aloof woman who is in control and doesn’t like taking “no” for an answer who begins to doubt herself and her sanity and cannot protect her children. as i write that it sounds more and more like a metaphor for what had been going on her life at the time of shooting – the crazy divorce (the war and the husband dying) and the weird intruders (scientology) and the fear of losing her children and not being able to protect them and them screaming at her that it’s all her fault (losing her children to tom and scientology) yikes! that’s crazy. anyway, she was phenomenal in the movie.

    and also, i really cannot stand how every movie is pretty much considered a FLOP whenever you read articles like this online and on every website. what does it take for a movie to be a HIT these days? i know more people that went to the movies and saw “Nine” than probably any movie that came out this year with the exception of a few kids movies because i have children and a lot of my friends have children, but that’s besides the point. I haven’t personally seen “Nine” yet, but they had a crazy press tour, got a Vogue cover out of it, tons of premiers and red carpets, tons of buzz, and like i said, i know more people that went to see that particular movie in the theater than probably any other movie that came out this year…. what does it take to have a HIT????i just feel like calling these women’s movies “flops” is just the easiest thing to say, like calling a normal woman fat or saying she’s a bad mother. those are the two things that you know you can say about just about any woman and you know it will upset them on some level, is that what this is… who ever the actress of the day is that we’re not liking that day, we call their movies “flops?” i don’t know, does anyone else ever pick up on this or is it just me?

    on another note- my grandmother ate lunch next to her YEARS ago, probably 10yrs ago at Barney’s and my grandmother said she was absolutely very sweet and charming and she “glowed” and was incredibly tall and thin and beautiful, the kind of beautiful where you know right away that they are SOMEBODY, of course because my grandmother is incredibly eccentric and didn’t realize that she was Nicole Kidman. she actually thought Nicole Kidman’s sister was the movie star and said it out loud and Nicole was still all those nice adjectives that my grandmother used to describe her. i know she has a reputation for being aloof or snobby or whatever but i think it might have more to do with trying to maintain her privacy and being shy, or trying to distance herself from the chaos. she has really been put through the ringer so i think it’s probably a self-defense thing. i mean, sometimes peole think i’m snotty or bitchy, but i’m not actually…i’m sometimes just really shy and i can’t help it 🙂

    anyway, i do really hate what she does to her lips though-that’s my only complaint. lots and lots and lots of actresses-probably almost all of them, have some sort of work done, its just usually very subtle and they all start in their 20’s just like Cindy Crawford so they’ve all been doing it for so long that you just think that’s their normal face now i think.

  45. Cindy Kennedy says:

    Her frozen face IS annoying. I think a lot of its just her cold personality coming through. I can’t stand to see her in films anymore. There is nothing warm or real about her. Gross.

  46. Because of the title of this post, I have been singing “frozen face” in my head to the tune of “poker face.” Haha

  47. paranel says:

    Bad nose job, lip job, too much botox. She was a beautiful woman , no need for all this extreme measures. We all have to face aging, it’s not a shame , don’t punish your face for it.

  48. crazydaisy says:

    poor girl. never could act, now this.

  49. We’ll the woman is doing everything to defy age … and gravity that it… and we must say that she is doing a good job but with the movies.., I don’t want to comment, but she used to be great though

  50. ogechi says:

    I love Nicole alot but am getting sad regarding the nature of her once beautiful face…Somebody should advice her to stop. She is very talented and good looking without any bad make-up.

  51. snapdragon says:

    is it just me or has her nose gotten alot smaller? hmmm -a bad nose job? poor nic – she used to be so pretty and unusual. now her face looks like an icicle.

  52. bondbabe says:

    IMO, one of her best roles was the movie Malice, which also starred Alec Baldwin, Bill Pullman, Ann Bancroft, Josef Sommer, Peter Gallagher and George C. Scott. Fantabulous movie.

  53. Marsha says:

    I was talking about this article at work today and I couldn’t believe the number of people who had refused to see Nine because Nicole Kidman was in it. I didn’t realise that she turned so many people off (‘She can’t act’, “Her face looks weird’, ‘If she’s in a movie then it is normally rubbish.’) Also it seems that as soon as you mention her name – the word BOTOX follows in seconds. She was only in Nine for about 10 minutes. Perhaps they should have taken her name off the poster and publicity material. Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz were fantastic. Also Kate Hudson & Fergie suprised me too!

  54. crash2GO2 says:

    Oh please, she has had the exact same nose since she first appeared on screen. So much for people being able to critique plastic surgery techniques from photos. LOL! If anyone has seen pictures of her with her sister, they have the same nose. It’s called genetics.

  55. Anna says:

    I just think Nicole has a rather ‘haughty froideur’ or coldness about her. Ever since she became Hollywood A list, she seems to have made films that were less and less good or successful. I remember her as a great Ozzy actress in the TV series Vietnam and the shock-horror film, Dead Calm. Recapture your glory days, Nicole. We know you can do it.

  56. HighVoltageBlonde says:

    Just had to say to Tiki – LMAO. Love Nicole, but you nailed it.

  57. josh says:

    all of you haters are imbecile! why do you keep fussing about her face? come on. did you ever appreciate her face when it was still natural?? come on. and the reason why her films become flops is that her films are rather serious that the audience might find it unappealing. she stars in movies with unique characters, without thinking about awards, critics’ reception, etc. and she is a very great actress. she can act way better than all of you dickheads combined.

  58. josh says:

    by the way, is kidman the first star to ever get botox?? ABSOLUTELY NOT. is she the first star to star in a series of flops? DEFINITELY NOT. she is aware of how she looks, and she chose to have those things, leave her. If you get your noses lifted, she would care, if you weren’t ANTI-KIDMAN.

  59. Austin Lee says:

    Nicole is scary and sort of desperate,not at ease,looking now.She was once such a natural beauty…those Dead Calm days…up until around 94 she was in my top 3 for actresses all around beauty and potential.I don’t hardly pay attention to her anymore because it breaks my heart to see that weird fake face she has now.And the weirdness of Tom Cruise adds to how I feel about her.I’m like,wow,they’re nothing like I even imagined.Also,when Nicole became a free woman after TC she kind of went bonkers on the dating scene that made no sense.Oh well,no ones perfect.It’d sure be nice to see her without all that goopy make-up she seems to always feel the need to smear on.Maybe do a documentary as a narrator or something instead of trying to reclaim the queen of Hollywood title with all the terrible roles she’s been doing.