Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967, in Honolulu, Hawaii,[5][6] while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas.[7] Her mother, a nursing instructor and member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, edited her husband's books; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author.[8] She has a younger sister, Antonia, who is a journalist and television presenter.[9] Having been born in the US to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual Australian and US citizenship.[10][11] She has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.[12][13] Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" ([hoːkuːˈlɐni]), meaning "heavenly star". The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.[14]
Kidman has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.[18] She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy– really shy– I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself."[19] During her teenage years, she attended the Phillip Street Theatre, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts, and the Australian Theatre for Young People, where she took up drama and mime as she found acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the sun drove her to rehearse in the halls of the theatre.[17] A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she was encouraged to pursue acting full-time, which she did by dropping out of high school.[12][16]
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas.[12] By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy to help her mother with physical therapy.[20] She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986).[21] Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.[22]
Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City (1988), based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a castaway at sea, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition.[23] Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy."[24] Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together."[25] She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.[26]
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes.[42] After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise,[43] Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl.[44] In 2001, she took on the role of cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film ... Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit."[45] She subsequently received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, among several other awards and nominations, including her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.[46][47]
Also in 2001, Kidman starred in Alejandro Amenábar's psychological horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210million worldwide, her performance earned her several award nominations, including a Goya Award nomination for Best Actress, in addition to receiving her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations.[48][49]Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."[50]A. O. Scott of The New York Times highlighted Kidman's performance, writing that she "embodies this unstable amalgam with a conviction that is in itself terrifying. The icy reserve that sometimes stands in the way of her expressive gifts here becomes the foundation of her most emotionally layered performance to date."[51]
The following year, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain."[52] She won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award.[16] During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld."[53] That same year, she was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.[54]
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three distinctly different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on."[55] The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character, and they become separated by the American Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight."[56] The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.[57]
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. No. 5 the Film, a three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5, made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12million for the three-minute advert.[62] During this time, she was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on Forbes' 2005 Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5million between 2004 and 2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17million per-film price tag.[63]
The following year, Kidman reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia (2008), set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Starring opposite Hugh Jackman, she played an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics,[67] it turned out to be a box office success, grossing over $211million worldwide against a budget of $130million.[68] In 2009, she appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the muse Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.[69]
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews.[82] She also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which she played an officer's wife.[83] Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific".[84] Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go to Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage.[85] Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.[86]
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children.[92] She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade."[93] Budgeted at US$12million, Lion earned over US$140million globally.[94] She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.[95]
Television expansion and continued acclaim (2017–2020)
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance",[96] while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses".[97] She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her work in the show.[98][99]
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramas, Destroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide",[105] whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting.[106] The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs".[107] That same year, Kidman took on the role of Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman, which grossed over US$1.1billion worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film to date.[108][109] Also in 2018, she was interviewed for a BAFTA event A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.[110]
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34million.[111] Kidman kicked off 2019 by reprising her role in the second season of the hit series Big Little Lies, which premiered in June.[112] The second season not only drew a larger audience than the first but also became the most-watched night of viewing for an HBO original series that year.[113] In September 2019, she took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort.[114] Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection".[115][116] She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson.[117]Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are".[118] For her performance, she received an additional Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.[119]
Kidman started off the 2020s with her role of Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.[120][121] She served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. Throughout its season, the series gained increasing momentum and broke records. HBO celebrated a historic achievement as the show became the network's first original series to grow its viewership consistently week by week. The finale marked the most-watched night on HBO since the season 2 finale of Big Little Lies.[122] Furthermore, the series surpassed Big Little Lies to become HBO's most-watched show of 2020 based on audience numbers.[123] For her performance, she received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.[124][125] Her only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key.[126]
In September 2021, Kidman starred in a commercial for AMC Theatres entitled "We Make Movies Better", which would play before every film in the theatres owned by the chain beginning that month and Kidman's sponsorship was later extended for another year in August 2022.[140][141] The commercial and Kidman's delivery of her speech proved popular with audiences who viewed it as a way to drive moviegoers back to seeing films theatrically in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.[142] AMC's CEO Adam Aron described Kidman's viral ad was "iconic and revered" during a 2022 earnings call and CNN reported that the ad "has inspired memes, homages and debate" and became "cultural thing".[143][144]
In April 2022, Kidman appeared in an episode of the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 short story collection, in addition to serving as executive producer.[145] The miniseries attracted mixed attention due to its unconventional and controversial feminist themes.[146][147] That same month, she starred alongside her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe in the historical drama The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers.[148] The film was received with widespread acclaim upon its release.[149][150]
In July 2023, Kidman joined the cast of the Paramount+ television series Special Ops: Lioness, on which she was already serving as an executive producer.[151] The miniseries received mixed attention upon release and reviewer Anita Singh of The Telegraph criticised "the one thing that lets the show down is Nicole Kidman as a CIA boss, whose frozen face these days is a total distraction".[152][153] Initially, reviewer Mike Hale, writing for The New York Times, remarked that the show resembled many other counterterrorism thrillers, noting its visceral action and somewhat artificial setting in the first episode. However, upon further reflection, he found that the show evolved into a moody, suspenseful, and intricately crafted genre piece with compelling characters.[154][155] In December 2023, Kidman reprised the role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.[156][157]
In January 2024, Kidman starred in and served as executive producer of the drama television series Expats.[158] Her performance garnered mixed reviews from critics.[159][160] In June 2024, she reunited with her The Paperboy co-star Zac Efron in Netflix's A Family Affair.[161][162] Although it received mixed reviews from critics, the film was well received by audiences.[163][164] It achieved the #1 spot among Netflix originals during its first weekend and maintained a strong position at #2 on the second weekend of its release.[165][166] Kidman portrayed a high-ranking CEO in the A24erotic thrillerBabygirl written and directed by Halina Reijn.[167]Robbie Collin of The Telegraph highlighted Kidman's work as "ferociously good, convincing utterly as this formerly level-headed careerist whose deeply buried, long-denied appetites are simultaneously proving her making and downfall."[168] For her performance, she received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. Kidman was absent from the ceremony due to the death of her mother.[169]
In September 2024, Kidman starred in, and served as executive producer on the Netflix series The Perfect Couple, based on Elin Hilderbrand's novel.[170] The series received mixed reviews from critics with many reviews criticizing Kidman for her constantly repeating herself.[171][172] However, it became Netflix's global hit leading the charts for two consecutive weeks[173][174] before dropping but still maintaining strong positions for the following weeks.[175] In October 2024, Kidman will reprise her role in the second season of the Paramount+ hit series Lioness.[176] In November 2024, Kidman is also set to voice Queen Ellsmere in the animated fantasy film Spellbound.[177]
One of her projects is Amazon's Holland, Michigan directed by Mimi Cave, which is wrapped up and expected to be released in 2025.[187][188] Her other credited film role includes Mice directed by Justin Kurzel.[189]
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation.[190][191] She has been noted for seeking eccentric roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her volatile performances and versatile work, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades.[192][150]Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular."[193] According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience."[194]Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it."[195] In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list.[196][197] In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century,[198] and in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, she was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.[199]
"I'm a character [actor]. I was trained as a character actor. That's what I want to do. I believe in changing the way you look, the way you move, the way you speak. I'm not great at playing myself, so what really gives me the greatest satisfaction is changing into something else."
Kidman is known to practise method acting for many of her roles.[201] It has been noted that she oftentimes transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally to resemble her characters,[202][203] to the point where it has adversely affected her health.[204] Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character."[205]W described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles ... and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."[206]
Scholars have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic".[207] Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs."[208]Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character."[209]Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."[210]
Arte France released a 53-minute documentary in 2023, Nicole Kidman – Eyes Wide Open.[211]
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon.[212] The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever.[213]Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it."[214]Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices."[215] In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.[212] Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."[216]
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman met actor Tom Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Colorado.[217][218] While married, the couple adopted a daughter, Isabella (born 1992), and a son, Connor (born 1995).[219] On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation.[220] Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences.[221] In 2013, Kidman said their marriage failed because of her young age when they married. "I was a child, really, when I got married," she said. "And I needed to grow up."[222] In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of a miscarriage early in her marriage: "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen. I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage."[223]
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him". In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce.[221] In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman".[224] Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion.[225] In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time of her divorce from Cruise led to increased public attention to her career, stating, "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.[226]
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson.[227][228] The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story.[229] She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003. During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Kravitz, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement.[230][231][232] However, they remain on good terms. Kravitz's daughter, Zoë Kravitz, later said that Kidman was a loving potential stepmother to her.[231] In 2003, she briefly dated A Tribe Called Quest rapper Q-Tip.[233][234]
In January 2005, Kidman met Australian-American country singer Keith Urban at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians.[235][236] In May 2006, she revealed they were engaged. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney.[237][238] For their honeymoon, they went to French Polynesia.[236] In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage."[226] Urban has credited Kidman for helping him overcome his struggles with alcohol addiction.[236] They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, US),[239] Beverly Hills (California, US),[240] two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia),[241] a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, US).[241] The couple's first daughter (Sunday Rose) was born in 2008, in Nashville.[242][243] In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter (Faith Margaret) via gestational surrogacy[244] at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.[245][246]
Religious beliefs and political views
Kidman was brought up in a Catholic family and remains practising.[247][248] She attended Mary Mackillop Memorial Chapel and Museum in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic,[249][250] Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the source material had been "watered down a little" and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic.[251] Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.[252][253]
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the leading place for a female actor in 2006.[258] In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian Financial ReviewRich List, following her divorce from Tom Cruise, with an estimated net worth of A$122million.[259]As of May2023[update], Kidman's net worth, listed jointly with Urban's, was assessed at A$596million by the Financial Review, after several years of not meeting the threshold for inclusion on the Rich List.[260] In 2021 it was reported that Celebrity Net Worth had assessed Kidman's net worth, not including that of Urban's, at US$250million.[261]
Philanthropy
Kidman (right) attending the 'International Center to End Violence' with Nancy Pelosi (left) and Esta Soler (center) in 2010
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.[262] She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease;[263] motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984.[264] Kidman was also appointed Goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006.[265][262]
She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts.[266] She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO– UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative.[267] Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008.[268] On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco.[269][270]
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies.[273] In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume.[274] She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005.[275] In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market.[276] In 2010, Kidman starred in the inauguration campaign of the Brazilian mall VillageMall, owned by the company Multiplan, located in Barra da Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro.[277] In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes.[278] In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways.[279] In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena.[280] In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.[281] In December 2023, she joined Balenciaga as their brand ambassador.[282][283]
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry.[288][289] In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.[290][41][91] Nicole Kidman was selected for the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award, originally scheduled to be received at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre on 10 June 2023, but was postponed to 27 April 2024 due to the WGA strike.[291][292][3]
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations.[293] During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally".[294][295] However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour.[296] It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra.[297] At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.[298]
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles.[299] Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in.[300] Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year,[301] being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association,[302] while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK singles chart.[303] In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards[304] and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.[305]
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning.[306] Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand,[307] Portugal,[308] and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria,[309] Belgium,[310] Denmark,[311] Germany,[312] the Netherlands,[313] Norway[314] and Switzerland,[315] as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold[316] in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia[317] and the ninety-third in France,[318] respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.[319]
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away".[320] The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film.[321] In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song "Unusual Way".[322] In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".[323][324] In 2022, Kidman joined Luke Evans to release a cover of "Say Something", originally performed by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera.[325]
Catherine Élise Blanchett is an Australian actor and film producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognized for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and the stage. Blanchett has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Tony Award.
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film.
The Others is a 2001 gothic supernatural psychological horror film written, directed and scored by Alejandro Amenábar, starring Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Alakina Mann and James Bentley. Set in 1945 in Jersey, it focuses on a woman and her two young photosensitive children who experience supernatural phenomena in their large manor after the arrival of new servants.
Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, who is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards.
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
Liana Daine Liberato is an American actress. She played the younger version of the female lead in the 2014 film The Best of Me and starred in the drama films The Last Sin Eater (2007) and Trust (2010), the thriller films Trespass (2011) and Erased (2012), and the horrors Haunt (2013) and The Beach House (2019). In 2017, she was part of the ensemble cast of the drama Novitiate and in 2018 she starred in the comedy Banana Split.
Samara Weaving is an Australian actress and model. She gained attention for her work in Australian television, appearing on the series Out of the Blue (2008) and receiving an AACTA Award nomination for playing Indi Walker on the soap opera Home and Away (2009–2013). She appeared in a recurring role in the first season of the series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015).
Margot Elise Robbie is an Australian actress and producer. Her work includes both blockbuster and independent films, and her accolades include nominations for three Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and Forbes named her the world's highest-paid actress in 2023.
Joey Lynn King is an American actress. She starred as Ramona Quimby in the comedy film Ramona and Beezus (2010) and gained wider recognition for her lead role as a late-blooming teenager in The Kissing Booth film series (2018–2021). King received critical acclaim for playing Gypsy-Rose Blanchard in the crime drama series The Act (2019), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
The Danish Girl is a 2015 biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper, based on the 2000 novel of the same title by David Ebershoff, and loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, one of the first known recipients of gender-affirming surgery, Alicia Vikander as Wegener, and Sebastian Koch as Kurt Warnekros, with Ben Whishaw, Amber Heard, and Matthias Schoenaerts in supporting roles.
Sarah Ruth Snook is an Australian actress. She is best known for her starring role as Shiv Roy in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023), for which she won two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Jacqueline Ruth Weaver is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. Weaver emerged in the 1970s Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as Stork (1971) for which she won AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Alvin Purple (1973), and Petersen (1974). She later starred in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) for which she won the AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actress in Film, Squizzy Taylor (1982), and a number of television films, miniseries, and Australian productions of plays such as Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire.
The Empire Award for Best Actress was an Empire Award presented annually by the British film magazine Empire to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role, while working within the film industry. The Empire Award for Best Actress was one of five ongoing awards which were first introduced at the 1st Empire Awards ceremony in 1996, with Nicole Kidman receiving the award for her role in To Die For. Winners were chosen by the readers of Empire magazine.
American-born Australian actress and producer Nicole Kidman has appeared in numerous film and television projects, as well as in theatre productions. She made her film debut in the Australian drama Bush Christmas in 1983. Four years later, she starred in the television miniseries Bangkok Hilton, for which she received the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama. Her breakthrough role was as a married woman trapped on a yacht with a murderer in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. She followed this with her Hollywood debut opposite Tom Cruise in Tony Scott's auto-racing film Days of Thunder (1990). Her role as a homicidal weather forecaster in Gus Van Sant's crime comedy-drama To Die For garnered Kidman a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical in 1996. She worked with Cruise again on Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992) and Stanley Kubrick's erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut in 1999.
Caitríona Mary Balfe is an Irish actress. She began working as a fashion model in Paris at age 18 but refocused on acting 10 years later. She had leading roles in the series The Beauty Inside (2012) and H+: The Digital Series (2012–2013), and appeared in the films Super 8 (2011), Now You See Me (2013), Escape Plan (2013), Money Monster (2016), and Ford v Ferrari (2019). Balfe rose to prominence when she played Claire Fraser in the Starz historical drama television series Outlander (2014–present), for which she received four Golden Globe Award nominations. Her performance in Belfast (2021) earned her nominations for the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the British Academy Film Award.
Jessica Kate Plummer is an English actress and singer. From 2013 to 2015, she was a member of the British girl group Neon Jungle, with whom she released an album that peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart. She is also known for her roles as Chantelle Atkins in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2019–2020) and as Emma in the BBC drama series The Girl Before (2021) for which she was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Lion is a 2016 Australian biographical drama film directed by Garth Davis from a screenplay by Luke Davies based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. The film stars Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, and Nicole Kidman, as well as Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It tells the true story of how Brierley, 25 years after being separated from his family in India, sets out to find them. It was a joint production between Australia and the United Kingdom.
Being the Ricardos is a 2021 American biographical drama film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Ball and Arnaz, while J. K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg are featured in supporting roles.
In September 2021, AMC Theatres began airing a commercial starring actress Nicole Kidman in its theaters and on television. The ad, written by screenwriter Billy Ray, was intended to spur theater attendance following the COVID-19 pandemic by highlighting the "magic" of the movie theater experience. In the ad, Kidman enters and sits alone in an empty AMC theater while delivering a monologue describing in heightened language the pleasures of the moviegoing experience, such as the "indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim and we go somewhere we've never been before". The commercial became a surprise hit among audiences, with its earnestly rhapsodic style and script — particularly the line "Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” — developing a certain camp appeal. It has inspired internet memes, parodies, and in-theatre audience participation rituals.
↑ Ellis, Lucy; Sutherland, Bryony (October 2002). Nicole Kidman: the biography. Aurum. p.34. ISBN9781854109262. Retrieved 9 November 2015. Nicole withdrew from all acting jobs and enrolled on a massage course so that she could relieve her mother's suffering with physical therapy.
↑ Carnicke, Sharon Marie (2006). "The Material Poetry of Acting: 'Objects of Attention', Performance Style, and Gender in The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut". Journal of Film and Video. 58 (1–2). University of Illinois Press: 21–30. ISSN0742-4671. JSTOR20688513.
↑ Baron, Cynthia (2004). More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp.260–261. ISBN0-8143-3079-7. OCLC54035239.
↑ Hoffman, Claire; Christensen, Kim (18 December 2005). "Tom Cruise and Scientology". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Among other things, Britt said, Miscavige and his wife attended the star's 1990 wedding to Kidman in Colorado and then followed up with frequent gifts.
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