Nicole Kidman received one of British GQ’s “Men of the Year” covers, which I assume makes her their Woman of the Year. It does feel like in the past decade or so, Nicole has completely remade her career. She was the hottest actress around, then she was in a rut for years, but she’s been back and working like she’s broke (she’s not broke). Two things have defined Nicole’s career in her late 40s and 50s: she started producing all of her own projects and she made a pact with herself to work with a female director at least once every other year. Currently, she’s promoting Babygirl, which was directed by Halina Reijn. Nicole wanted to the film because she loved the script though. Some highlights from British GQ:
Babygirl: In Babygirl, “she plays a 50-something tech CEO in the midst of a BDSM-tinged affair with a 20-something intern, features her most vulnerable performance in years. Kidman says making it was even more challenging than 1999’s fabled erotic mystery Eyes Wide Shut. “I’m in the whole film [in Babygirl]. There are so many close-ups. It’s a full stripping of me.”
She hasn’t done a gritty film like ‘Babygirl’ in a while: “I haven’t been the lead of a gritty indie film [in a while], that’s true,. I haven’t done a Birth for a long time.”
Her life changed a lot in the mid-2000s. She started a family with Urban, whom she married in 2006, and had two daughters. “When Moulin Rouge! came out I was DJing at two or three in the morning. I wouldn’t be doing that now. And that’s a choice.”
Wild swings: “I don’t see them as daring, that’s the problem. Not when I read them. I just see them as like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to make this.’ It happened with Birth. The same with [Babygirl], and Eyes Wide Shut. All of them. Dogville.”
Scripts like ‘Babygirl’ rarely get made. “It’s why there’s so few good films. You don’t read ’em. They’re not financed, or they’re not found; they sit on shelves or on people’s computers; they don’t make their way into the world.”
The major landmarks at 57: “Mortality. Connection. Life coming and hitting you. And loss of parents and raising children and marriage and all of the things that go into making you a fully sentient human. I’m in all of those places. So life is, whew. It’s definitely a journey. And it hits you as you get older how it’s a wake up at 3am crying and gasping kind of thing. If you’re in it and not numbing yourself to it. And I’m in it. Fully in it.”
Her version of Method acting: “I’m willing to go to whatever place to make it real and deep and certain things just click and it’s cellular. You can absolutely tell when people are phoning something in. For me, that doesn’t work. I’m not moved by that.” When the camera stops rolling, she doesn’t just get to slip off her costume and walk away. Any negative feelings linger in her subconscious. “I get sick or I get disturbed,” Kidman says. “It penetrates my dreams, I don’t sleep well, I shake, I have all sorts of different physical manifestations from it.”
The meme of Nicole with her arms out, taking in the sun, which many believe was when she signed her divorce papers from Tom Cruise: “Yes [I know the photo]. That was not me; that was from a film, that wasn’t real life. I know that image!” The story that goes with this meme whenever it circulates is that Kidman had just left her lawyer’s office after the dissolution of her first marriage. “That’s not true,” she laughs. “I’ve also seen the one where I’m clapping like that.” She begins to clap as I’ve seen her clap dozens of times in gif form, with her fingers pointed backwards and only her palms meeting. “’Cause I had a massive heavy borrowed ring on and it was really painful, and I was scared of wrecking the jewellery. Ha! There’s always something behind the actual images that go out there, right?”
Her viral AMC ads: “‘Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.’ But I’ll do anything for cinema, so you can meme me as much as you want.”
I’m including the iconic photos of Nicole, which she and the magazine referenced. It was 2001 and she divorced Tom Cruise. I remember when the photos were published and the reason they go viral all the time is because the backstory is true. I mean, I don’t want to call Nicole a liar or anything, but what movie is this supposed to be from? Cite it. This was Nicole’s real life! Just like the iconic photo of Nicole smoking at the Oscar party the year before, where Tom looked like he was bitching her out. Nicole really is an icon, my god.
“The Declaration of Independence”? Oh, you mean Nicole Kidman finalizing her divorce in 2001? pic.twitter.com/Y5rD0GJ6ZP
— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) July 4, 2023
the beauty that lies within nicole kidman smoking a cigarette and completely ignoring tom cruise pic.twitter.com/W1sUeqI4bU
— gabriela (@hollygolightIy) October 17, 2019
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, cover courtesy of British GQ.
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- Premiere of Netflix’ ‘Spellbound’ at The Plaza Hotel Featuring: Nicole Kidman Where: New York, New York, United States When: 11 Nov 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Celebrities at the 2024 Governors Awards at Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles Featuring: Nicole Kidman Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 17 Nov 2024 Credit: Starface Photo/Cover Images **UK AND USA RIGHTS ONLY**
Hasn’t Nicole said multiple times that she was happy in her marriage to Tom, didn’t want the divorce and doesn’t want to keep talking about it, out of respect for her current husband Keith? She (and Tom) have shared memories about each other and their time together and anecdotes about co-parenting in the many years since their marriage ended, so maybe it’s time it was put to bed since they have both moved on.
Co-parenting? She was cut off from her kids with Cruise for being a ‘suppressive person’ and they still don’t talk to her.
Connor and Bella Kidman Cruise do have a relationship with Nicole and have confirmed so themselves. Also, there are paparazzi pictures of them as children and through their teens out with Nicole well after her divorce from Tom, and pictured with her and her husband Keith too. Plus Nicole herself has shared stories in TV and magazine interviews about them and anecdotes about Tom (for example, Nicole told a story about calling Tom when Bella wanted to dye her hair blue). And for what it’s worth, Bella follows Nicole and Sunday Rose on Instagram and likes their content. Given that Connor and Bella are adults, have never really courted press attention and remained Scientologists with their father, and with what we know about that cult, of course things are going to be extremely complicated. But they clearly do have contact.
They actually do keep in contact. Yes she was blindsided by Tom’s (Scientology’s) decision to divorce as she was drifting away from Co$ and back into Catholicism, but has never revealed details, no doubt under great pressure to not say a word about it. Nicole is very judicious about revealing anything about Tom other than films they acted in together. She has said repeatedly that she is all about loving her children whether adopted or biological, and that all kids go through peaks and valleys growing up, but her focus has always been on ensuring they feel loved and respected for who they are.
Although i have read, yes, she didn’t want to talk about the Tom era, i had read that there was always tension there. Her dad, who was adored by her, was a shrink, and scientology is not keen on psychology. Strike one. He wouldn’t let her wear heels was another morsel. Strike two. It was also rumored that he micromanaged all of her business decisions. Strike three. We all deserve that picture. I wish she would laugh and say next question. I want to believe it’s her emancipation. Hahaha
This is the man who drove Katie Holmes to create an escape plan, divorce attorneys and all. Whatever happiness he and Nicole had, he was that same man, and would always be. If he distanced himself it’s because Scientology told him to. Scientology is the real issue here. They made Tom believe he was a God, and he agreed. They made Nicole an SP and he left her. What kind of a man does that?
Whatever love they had, he ruined it with his behavior. Nicole ended up with the better man and I believe she knows that.
She probably says that because it was part of the divorce deal. Just like Katie Holmes doesn’t talk about her marriage to Tom.
Nicole does still talk about her marriage to Tom. She just gave an interview talking about their time on the set of Eyes Wide Shut a couple months ago. She clearly will talk about what she wants but has said she doesn’t want to keep talking about how happily married they were because it’s disrespectful to Keith.
Um why lie? Last seen with Connor in 2007. It’s easily googleable. Both a no-show at her father’s funeral. At her American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award gala etc. There is no familial relationship.
Maybe it was an outtake from Moulin Rouge! LOL. Gurl, own it. That photo is for real, you’ll never convince us otherwise….and I’ve never seen that cigarette photo before but that is LIFE.
She’s always been one of my favorite actresses so I’ve followed her career for a long time. For me, she’s always done indies alongside blockbusters and bombs. I don’t see any reinvention, rather a throughline – it’s one of the reasons I love her work, she’s fearless both on camera and off (I mean professionally, in the sense of script and production decisions). It doesn’t always work out but when it does, there’s almost no one better.
Her private life is her business but as a fan, I wish she would stop messing with her face, she could truly become a legendary screen icon but for now she’s heading straight for Madonna territory and it’s sad…
I sort of love the photo too much to accept that it’s about anything other than feeling the release from toxicity in every fiber and corner of her soul.
I do feel so sad that her children were so effectively taken / alienated from her. I can’t imagine that kind of pain.
And she seems to have been messing much less with her face recently. For a while it was completely frozen.
One of the things I love about her career is that throughline like you said. She’s always done a mix of lighter and heavier, gritty and bubbly, mainstream box office and darker indie movies. The difference between Birth and Bewitched and Moulin Rouge and The Hours…..
you can’t really predict what she’ll do next and I think now that she is doing a lot of Netflix and HBO limited series more people are starting to realize that. Big Little Lies wasn’t out of character for her when you look at her whole career.
I 100% agree about her face. She is gorgeous anyway and her face needs to MOVE and show expression to be able to act. I hope she stops messing with it.
I think it’s from that movie where she plays a Russian woman who comes to Britain to visit her internet boyfriend?
So I looked it up and that movie is called birthday girl. I’ve never heard of this movie before, so I guess it is possible that that could be a still from a scene that was cut. I have a feeling that most people that even follow Nicole Kidman probably haven’t seen that movie so it’s not like it would be common knowledge.
It’s actually a pretty good movie but she has almost black hair in that, so this photo isn’t from that.
I would bet the photo is from something even older — she looks quite a bit younger.
In that pic Nicole looks like an actress who just had the wig & makeup removed after a long day of shooting [perhaps BD Girl]. Those wigs can be enormously uncomfortable, esp under the hot camera lighting needed to shoot on film stock. Makeup has to be heavier to withstand the hot lights as well. I’m recalling an anecdote from The Hours that Nicole’s prosthetic nose kept wilting out of place under those lights. Even regular makeup has to be industrial strength. See Kevin Costner’s eulogy @ Whitney Houston’s funeral, recounting how she felt self-conscious in the studio makeup & snuck back into her trailer to remove/reapply, which then proceeded to melt off once they resumed shooting The Bodyguard
Oh yeah, she has very dark hair in that. I thought of it because she has a more regular person wardrobe in that.
This is so funny, regardless of whether she’s telling the truth or not. Honestly, if she wants to run with that story, that’s fine by me (not that she needs my approval). There are far worse things to lie about.
Nah, I believe her. I remember her being blind-sided by the divorce. She looks younger in those photos and that looks like pre-divorce hair. Katie was the one celebrating her escape.
I don’t blame anyone who opts to tell a white lie in order to stay off Scientology’s radar.
Seriously, and she’s done a great job so far staying safe, when she clearly has some serious dirt on them.
I thought everyone knew that photo was from one of her movies and just rolled with the joke.
I agree. I don’t think it’s cool to call her a liar about this. If she says it’s not from her divorce, it’s pretty weird for people to tell her, “yes it was, Nicole, we know more than you.” For one thing, I always thought it’d be pretty odd for a high-profile person to wear the equivalent of a farmer’s market outfit to a divorce proceeding. But what do I know. I think the picture is from an old movie, and the scene was on the cutting room floor.
she was in a rut for years? what years exactly were those?
Nicole’s career took a back seat during the Cruise marriage. Way, way in the back seat. Once she divorced Tom she got to accept roles that made people remember “oh yeah, this is the talent she showed (pre Tom) in Dead Calm.” She’s had some lulls since then but nothing like her Cruise years.
Absolutely not, she made a movie almost every year. In addition, she and Tom spent years working on Eyes Wide Shut together.
She never stopped working through marriage or divorce.
She can say what she wants, poor dear. I feel so sorry for her for that breakup, losing her child before birth, and losing her adopted children. I, too, remember the photo, and I remember it was attributed to her after attorney visit. She can say what she needs to, and we can view it as we wish. There are countless pictures of her with her natural hair this way off set. This is an off set picture. And she can emote any way she wants, because she went through hell. This is what I have to remind myself of when co-workers say how wonderful Cruise is. To rip her children away from her is unconscionable. He is still accountable for that, regardless of how many MI movies he makes, and makes nice with crew and co-stars.
Wow, Nicole with her real face and frizzy red hair. That takes me back. She was always stunning, just in a more Hollywood way now. I gave Dead Calm a nostalgic watch not too long ago, and I didn’t feel like I was looking at a younger version of the current Nicole. She’s reinvented on a lot of levels. Moulin Rouge to me is where the new Nicole was born.
I think she is mixing up photos. That was a pap photo of her coming out of her attorney’s office. It was clearly not a movie set. And those lenses are so far away she probably never thought a private moment would be captured like that.
I am not sure when these rut years were? Her greatest achievements were the years after the divorce. She won best actress Oscar in 2003 and has been nominated five times in total.
We all know she was blindsided by the divorce. But if you remember the wire tapping’s that were being done to celebrities. The call that was caught between Tom and Nicole she was pretty miserable with him. Tom was not a good partner to her. And made sure the kids turned on her when they labeled her an SP and had the choice to see her or not when they were older.
As I understand she has a relationship with Bella which may be a result of Bella marrying a non-scientologist. For all we know Bella is on the outs with Tom too.
She has had an amazing life and career.
Hold up, y’all. Nicole Kidman. . . DJ’s? Where can we see footage?!?
Agree with lots of what therese said above, and this is how Nicole dresses when she’s dressing herself and not being dressed by leading designers. Check out her holiday photos when she’s off-duty with her family, away from the designers and stylists; she has always and STILL dresses like the Aussie gals I grew up with in the pre-social-media era (I’m CALD Australian) – a little bit quirky and unfashionable and gawky.
In other words, I don’t believe she was on set either, but I give celebs a bit more leeway to be dishonest about the little things as I wouldn’t want my private moments scrutinised and consumed like that.
She gave an interview during that time saying she was curled on the floor crying and just utterly heartbroken. I think they basically broke up due to Co$ wanting to drive a wedge between them, as has been reported, but also because Tom Cruise lost the passion. He was filming Vanilla Sky during their marriage and got with Penelope Cruz right after. She ended up breaking up with them, and he’s dated mostly if not all brunettes (Nazanin Boniadi, Sofia Vergara, Katie Holmes, etc.) since then.
He blindsided her with the divorce – she didn’t have a clue it was coming – and she retaliated by taking half of his net worth by proving (she kept their miscarried baby’s remains) they’d been intimate up until their 10th wedding anniversary (under CA law, this means she was entitled to half).
That second pic of her smoking; there’s actually a story behind that. The photographer is Jonathan Becker and he said Tom was annoyed with Nicole as she was letting loose and not playing the HW game. Look up The Guardian interview of Becker.
Any contact she has with Bella and Connor is pretty limited, I’d say.
I would believe her about being brave and willing to go where it’s needed to keep it real if she didn’t jack her face so much. She’s obviously not willing to age and keep it that real. I saw a clip of her on Graham Norton and she was smiling and laughing and looked utterly bizarre and frozen
Her face isn’t real
It’s a fun past time to play caption that photo but since this is Nicole Kidman talking about a picture of Nicole Kidman I’m inclined to believe what she says. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? And for the record, she made twelve films in the decade she was married to Tom Cruise.
Thank you, Kaiser! The first thing I thought when I read this Kidman comment was: WWKS??? What would Kaiser Say? Own it, Nicole. You’d just been freed from a psycho and you rejoiced. That photo is a beautiful thing.