{"id":237,"date":"2018-02-05T11:23:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=237"},"modified":"2018-03-28T17:10:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:10:52","slug":"nicole-kidman-at-my-age-i-think-ah-who-cares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Nicole Kidman: \u2018At my age, I think: Ah, who cares?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

She has an Academy Award for playing Virginia Woolf in\u00a0The Hours<\/em>, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she graced a 2009 Australian postage stamp. You\u2019d imagine that Nicole Kidman would sigh wearily at the prospect of winning Yet Another Bafta. Instead, she greets the news of a nod for her supporting turn in\u00a0Lion<\/em>\u00a0as if she\u2019s won the lottery. There can\u2019t be much space left in her good glass cabinet, surely?<\/p>\n

\u201cOoh, no, I definitely have a space,\u201d she says, excitedly. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t wait to tell my daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deep into awards season, Kidman has already raised eyebrows with a jolly appearance at the Golden Globes ceremony, a shindig that is seldom mistaken for a temperance rally. At least one reliably hysterical tabloid was horrified by reports that the 49-year-old \u2013 a Guess Your Age app would say 33, tops \u2013 had crashed a boring red carpet interview with Tom Hiddleston and had \u2013 oh, the humanity \u2013 brushed pizza crumbs off her dress. We should expect no less from the woman who greeted the furore over\u00a0The Paperboy<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 a film in which she memorably relieves herself on Zac Efron \u2013 with a shrug of her freckled shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh dear,\u201d she says, with her tongue firmly in cheek. \u201cWhen I\u2019m at press conferences and whatever, my dry Australian humour doesn\u2019t always translate. But that\u2019s how we do most things: with humour. And at my age, I\u2019m coming into that place where I think: Ah, who cares? I can be who I want to be. I do have an earnest side. But it\u2019s calming down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otherworldly creatures<\/h4>\n

I\u2019m not sure what I was expecting from Nicole Kidman. For much of her life \u2013 and mine \u2013 she was one of the most photographed women in the world. As long ago as\u00a0Dead Calm<\/em>, made when she was only 21, she looked like a natural-born movie star. Perhaps as a by-product of her vast celebrity, she has often seemed as ethereal as the otherworldly creatures she portrayed in\u00a0The Others<\/em>,\u00a0Birth<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Rabbit Hole<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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But in real life she\u2019s . . . well, real. Years and distance have not wearied her Australian accent and irreverence. And she certainly has the gift of the gab. It is often noted that Kidman \u2013 who was married to Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 \u2013 doesn\u2019t discuss Scientology. She certainly covers all other bases. Half an hour into our conversation and I could write a book. We\u2019ve covered everything from the rising traffic levels in Nashville to shooting\u00a0Far and Away<\/em>\u00a0in Kerry. I know her Irish family left the Dingle peninsula for Australia in 1839. I know her sister, Antonia Kidman, a journalist and TV presenter, has just finished a law degree. I know that Jane Campion\u2019s nickname for Kidman is \u201cUnicorn\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always done things a bit differently,\u201d she laughs. \u201cMy mum always says I was left in the garden. That I\u2019m a changeling. And I say: \u2018Mum, that\u2019s terrible!\u2019 But she insists it\u2019s a compliment. That it just means I\u2019m a bit different from the rest of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

A changeling unicorn?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes. I\u2019ll take that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rarity of that species may account for Kidman\u2019s disarming demeanour. She far more fun than you might have guessed and about 10 times more emotionally available: \u201cI do do things differently,\u201d she nods. \u201cI cry very easily. I understand other people\u2019s emotional states very easily. I see that same empathy in my oldest daughter. She\u2019ll sit there watching a movie and she\u2019ll be heartbroken. And she\u2019ll take a long time to recover. I was that kid, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feminist and proud<\/h4>\n

Nicole Mary Kidman was born in Honolulu, to Antony Kidman \u2013 a celebrated biochemist, clinical psychologist and author \u2013 and Janelle Ann, a nursing instructor, scientific editor and member of the Women\u2019s Electoral Lobby. She was raised feminist and proud in Sydney, an upbringing that would allow for greater versatility as a performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not attached to my physical identity,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I have to play a character, I really relish physical change. As an actor, that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do. That\u2019s what we were taught at drama school. Change the way you walk. Change the way you talk. Change your physical being. Change your nose. Trouble is, when a woman does it, it\u2019s a big deal. Oh, she\u2019s got different hair! I don\u2019t care about that. If you\u2019re trying to play someone like Virginia Woolf, you sit down with others and say: show me how I can become this person.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s more than her appearance but she is, nonetheless, happy that she \u201clooks Irish\u201d. If she has one regret, she says, it\u2019s getting out the straightening iron too early and too often on her red curls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just played someone with natural curly hair and no make-up,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat a relief! My littlest daughter has the exact same hair I did. I look at that hair now and think: \u2018Ooh, you\u2019re not to do anything to that beautiful hair.\u2019 Now my curls are just frizz really. I wish I had valued them before they got that way. I can sneak up on my daughter to touch hers. But she tells me to leave them alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kidman\u2019s last years in the Hollywood whirlwind \u2013 post-Cruise, there was some highly publicised stepping-out with Robbie Williams and Lenny Kravitz \u2013 were defined by \u201ca lot of exposure\u201d as she delicately puts it. It could have been worse: she did skip town before TMZ, social media and Rottweiler paparazzi took hold. \u201cI was lucky because I navigated a lot of loss and pain, but I didn\u2019t have to do it as publicly as many actors have to nowadays,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a different territory now. I\u2019m not sure I would have managed that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She laughs: \u201cLuckily, I\u2019m not as interesting as I used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gypsies<\/h4>\n

These days, Kidman savours a \u201cquieter, nourishing pace of life\u201d in Nashville, Tennessee, with the New Zealand-born country singer Keith Urban, her husband of 10 years, and their two daughters, Sunday (7) and Faith (5). The family are close \u2013 if Nicole is on set, the rest of the clan come with. Ditto when Keith goes on tour. \u201cWe\u2019re gypsies,\u201d she says. \u201cWe can get up and go anywhere at any time. The concept of home for us, is us. As long as the family is together then we\u2019re home.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she won an\u00a0Evening Standard\u00a0<\/em>award for her turn as X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin in the West End production of\u00a0Photograph 51<\/em>\u00a0last year, she was keen to share the credit. \u201cI brought it home and said: \u2018We\u2019ve won this. We earned this together because you moved to England so that I could do this. This belongs to our family.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Movie lore tells us that the sets of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s\u00a0Eyes Wide Shut<\/em>\u00a0and Lars von Trier\u2019s\u00a0Dogville<\/em>\u00a0were not the jolliest of working environments. Kidman, a tireless cheerleader for auteur-driven cinema, is having none of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m drawn to visionaries,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me, an auteur is someone educated enough to micro-manage cinematography, editing, lighting \u2013 every single step of the process. Other people are there to augment and facilitate their vision. And it\u2019s a massive advantage to work with someone who has a vision. Because you have a leader. You are part of a larger thing. I\u2019ve always said that Kubrick was a philosopher. As is Jane Campion. As is Sofia Coppola, who I\u2019ve just finished working with. I\u2019m drawn to those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Idiosyncratic<\/h4>\n

Kidman cheerfully describes her recent work \u2013 think Werner Herzog\u2019s\u00a0Queen of the Desert<\/em>\u00a0or the incoming Yorgos Lanthimos curveball\u00a0The Killing of a Sacred Deer<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 as idiosyncratic. \u201cI\u2019ve never been one for the mythology of the hero,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m wired to like flaws and tragedy. For as long as I can remember, I have always been slightly offbeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feelgood drama\u00a0Lion<\/em>\u00a0is an exception to the rule. Based on an irresistible true story of an Indian-born, Australian-adopted boy who uses Google maps to find his birth parents, this gorgeously emosh tear-jerker stars Kidman as the adoptive mother of the cross-continent trekking hero (Dev Patel). It was an important project for Kidman, who has come at motherhood every which way: she adopted two children with Tom Cruise, and has two biological children with Keith Urban, one through traditional means and one via surrogacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the purest form of maternal love I\u2019ve done on screen,\u201d she says. \u201cUnconditional. Very warm. Once the bond is formed with a child and you are the mother, everything is different. I don\u2019t know that you can fake that. Maybe a great actress could. But I needed to draw on what I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did her own experiences with adoption shape her performance?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were everything. The primary thing being that desire for the birth mother to know that everything is okay. You\u2019ve had this child, you\u2019ve lost this child, and I want you to know that your child is safe. That\u2019s a strange and powerful union between women. Sometimes, it takes a village to raise a child. And that\u2019s a very beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0http:\/\/bristoldailynews.co.uk\/2017\/01\/20\/nicole-kidman-at-my-age-i-think-ah-who-cares\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She has an Academy Award for playing Virginia Woolf in\u00a0The Hours, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she graced a 2009 Australian postage stamp. You\u2019d imagine that Nicole Kidman would sigh wearily at the prospect of winning Yet Another Bafta. Instead, she greets the news of a nod for her supporting turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":586,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}