At 50, Nicole Kidman has found happiness, gratitude and award-winning work
INTERVIEW MICHELE MANELIS ILLUSTRATION TOM MORGAN JONES
Fearless, likable, and oozing talent, Nicole Kidman is the Oscar-winning star known for taking giant leaps of faith both on set and off. Now at 50, she feels every gamble has paid off, professionally and personally. She’s being rewarded for some of the best work of her career, winning an Emmy and Golden Globe for playing a survivor of domestic abuse in Big Little Lies, switching to a repressed Virginian Civil War schoolmarm in The Beguiled, and then seamlessly changing gears again to portray a surgeon in the surreal horror film, Killing of a Sacred Deer. Best of all, and despite looking more glamorous than ever, she is carving a career as a formidable character actor.
Offscreen, Kidman is raising her daughters, Sunday, 9, and Faith, 7, with Keith Urban in Nashville. She is happier and more fulfilled than ever, and it shows. Though we have known each other casually for decades, there’s a palpable calm to her now, an easy contentment. She’s always been a woman who’s quick to laugh, and laugh loudly, but there’s even more of it now.
VM: When you look at your career and the roles you’ve taken, you seem to be constantly walking on the edge of a cliff.
NK: And I’ve fallen off that cliff a few times! But I try and conduct myself as though I have the abandonment of a 21-year-old. I want to try and give everything a go and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work.
VM: Last year you turned 50, an age when most women complain of diminishing roles. But for you it was not only the most prolific time of your career, but you made some rather brave choices.
NK: Yes, it’s time for a comedy, which is why I’m doing Aquaman!
VM: Are you playing a mermaid? Do you have a tail?
NK: Well, I can’t tell you too much. I don’t have a tail, but I have a crown. But on the subject of my career and my age, all I can tell you is that I feel very happy to be here. I think it’s that simple. Do I want to look good at times? Yeah. Is it an obsession? No. Do I have a man that loves me no matter how I look? Yes. That really helps. But yeah, I like to feel healthy, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, as my mum says.
VM: You‘ve been married for 11 years to Keith, the father of your two beautiful daughters. Your career couldn’t be in a better place. Clichés aside, you are the epitome of a woman who has it all.
NK: I have balance right now. I don’t believe in the phrase “have it all,” because what is all? I have certain things in my life now that are hard that I am struggling with. Obviously, as you get to a certain age, there are issues that arise with your parents and I am dealing with that, and that’s just part of life. So do I have it all? No, but I am walking through it and I am walking through it with an enormous amount of love and support in my life.
VM: Doing interviews and making appearances is a big part of your job. Is that something you dread or do you enjoy it?
NK: Well, you have interviewed me many, many times, and I just speak from what I feel. I actually enjoy it, though what I don’t enjoy is having to talk about something that I actually don’t feel is worthy of the promotion. That’s tough. But I am so fortunate right now because I am still invested emotionally in all of these projects I’ve been doing lately. Since I was a little girl I wanted to sit and talk about films and books and art and novels and ideas and ask people, and be asked, “What did you feel?” That’s fun for me. So, I think I have embraced far more of my life in the last few years.
VM: How does it feel to be described as a movie star?
NK: I feel like I am a working actress, I really do. I feel like I am part of a community and I feel like every now and then some things are celebrated and then other times you are looking to get a job. You never know what you’re doing next, and I like that. There are moments, like being at the Cannes Film Festival, when I have many flashbacks to earlier days like Moulin Rouge. And even now, being there and walking that huge staircase, it still takes my breath away.
VM: You’re in a very powerful position and can get projects green-lighted, especially when you collaborate as producer and star with another A-lister like Reese Witherspoon. Big Little Lies turned out pretty well for you.
NK: Yes it did! Big Little Lies was born out of frustration for me and for Reese because we weren’t being offered complex or interesting roles. We wanted to present female roles that are about now, that are dealing with things that we are dealing with right now, shrouded in the fluff, but underneath it, the strength and the topics that are very present and very disturbing. We can’t wait to start shooting the second season.
VM: Big Little Lies shone a light on domestic abuse. Are you still working for the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador?
NK: Yes. We do a lot of fundraising because there’s just isn’t the money right now, particularly for women’s causes. We go and meet with people because that money goes directly to different projects that they have going on in all different parts of the world. It’s a fantastic situation in the sense that these women who work for UN Women in Liberia, Africa, the Philippines, and Afghanistan are setting up shelters. They set up grass roots campaigns so that certain women can vote. A lot of times, you can’t even go and vote because you can’t leave the family.
VM: A few years ago you left Los Angeles for Nashville. I’m pretty sure you don’t miss sitting on the 405 freeway, but are you nostalgic for Mullholland Drive or the California lifestyle in any way?
NK: Yes, I love LA, I really do but in terms of a home base, Nashville is so good for us. It’s very quiet and easy and it’s just a really lovely way of life. And we have very much been invited into the community, and Keith has lived there for 25 years. I think I am the kind of person that could move pretty much anywhere.
VM: People who live in LA or New York often don’t have much understanding of the middle of the country. Can you talk about the America that you know.
NK: I am an American citizen. I live in the South. I live in Tennessee and I shoot all over the country, so I see a lot of it. We also travel on the tour bus with Keith and really see the heart of America. It’s amazing thing to see because it keeps you absolutely in touch with people. Rural people, people that are struggling, people that are just very happy to be left alone, and I love that.
VM: To what do you attribute the success of your relationship with Keith?
NK: I have the most beautiful, gentle, kind soul whom I have a union with, and to be able to raise children together — that is the most important thing to us. I got married very young the first time around. I think meeting when we did, Keith and I at 38, we were really ready to surrender to each other and to prioritize each other. He’s really special and he gives me so much. The support of a husband for a successful woman is imperative.
VM: Finish this statement “Nicole Kidman is…”
NK: Nicole Kidman is down on her knees grateful for life, and truly I mean that. Humble and in a place of absolute gratitude. And in the now.
