Still-faced, soft-spoken and statuesque, Australian movie star Nicole Kidman, 54, continues to mesmerise audiences. But don’t mistake her serenity for inactivity. One of the most productive actresses in the business, Kidman stays busy, and goes to brave lengths in her work – often doing her own stunts and undertaking emotionally intense roles. In the past year alone, Kidman has played Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist New York, in the HBO psychological thriller The Undoing, starred in Netflix musical comedy film The Prom, and starred in and produced the Hulu miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name.
SHE DOES
HAVE a Hawaiian name – Kidman was born there. Hokulani means “heavenly star”.
LIKE TO surf and attend the opera.
KEEP PETS she has six pet alpacas at her sprawling, farmland home in Lavender Bay, New South Wales, Australia.
LISTEN to her friend and mentor Meryl Streep on sexism in Hollywood. “I really use her as a beacon, as she’s always saying, there’s still so much work to be done. And there is.”
LOVE KIDS “I prefer children to adults. I like adults more than I used to; not more than kids, though …”
PREFER winter clothes to summer clothes – her favourite fashion item is a pair of black tights.
WEAR HER HEART on her sleeve in order to do her work. “You’re having to constantly dig into the depth of your past, your desires, your future, everything. My work is emotions and keeping them there, ripe and raw. Then being able to put them away and going to live my real life.”
LIKE A HOT BATH with lots of essential oils.
SINGLE OUT Irish production, Normal People, for praise. “That was exquisite work from those two actors,” she told the New York Times. “There’s a lot of sexuality in that show, but both actors felt very safe and they were able to still do these really intimate things.”
CONSIDER fellow Aussie actress Naomi Watts a close friend. They attended the same high school. “Naomi and I are very, very good friends and have maintained our friendship through so many things. That’s really rare, particularly for actresses, and I take a lot of pride in that.”
BRING A PILLOW on set, always.
LITIGATE. Kidman once won an undisclosed sum from British tabloids which claimed she was having an affair with Cold Mountain co-star Jude Law.
SING Her duet with Robbie Williams, a cover of Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid”, spent three weeks in the top spot in the UK charts.
EAT a healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains.
SHE DOESN’T
COME FROM PRIVILEGE “When my family moved to America, they had nothing. My parents had to go to the Salvation Army and get a mattress, which we all slept on; my mum helped put my dad through his PhD, as he came from a very poor family.”
REMEMBER feeling confident during her high school years, because of her height. “I had a lot of fears and insecurities because I was very tall, 5’10” by the time I was 13.”
DENY that being a young actor took away some real-life experiences. “I started working at 14. I had my first kiss on stage. I was living out my life artistically.”
THINK of herself as socially confident, despite her position in the public eye. She hates walking into crowded restaurants by herself or going to a party alone.
MIND BEING the nurturing, caretaker figure in her family. “I’m the eldest child, my mother had breast cancer when I was 17, and I had to take care of her. It’s a place in which I feel confident and I feel good when I’m able to do it.”
LIKE BEING APART from her daughters while at work. She usually takes her two youngest, Sunday and Faith, on set but couldn’t when filming Nine Perfect Strangers last year, due to Covid-19 protocols.
DISCUSS publicly the Church of Scientology, a quasi-religious organisation which her ex-husband Tom Cruise belongs to, and which is believed to have been the main cause of their divorce. She has two grown-up children, Isabel and Conor, with Cruise.
ADMIT TO having any cosmetic procedures done, despite receiving backlash on social media for her immobile face in The Undoing.
COWER FROM doing her own stunts, including jumping out of a plane, racing around a car track at 200mph, and scuba-diving with sharks. She also sang the theme song for The Undoing.
DOUBT her popularity in her native Australia – her face has even featured on the national stamp.