Nicole Kidman On Taking Risks, And Sharks

Hugh Jackman

Actor

If anyone epitomises the phrase “try anything once” it’s Nicole Kidman. My question is… Nic, what would you not even try once?
Well, I’ve skydived at night, so there’s nothing sport-wise. I’m pretty much up for trying anything once, Hugh knows that, I’m game for most things. So I can’t think of anything. Is that crazy? [Pause] I actually wouldn’t do Everest. There you go. I’m never going to do Everest. I just don’t think I’d make it to the top. Because even though I have a risky side, I’m careful. And that wouldn’t feel good, right?

And I don’t think I’d race on motorbikes. I’ll go on the back of a motorbike, but I don’t think I’d race them.

Iain Glen

Actor

You have always been so exceptional whenever you perform in the theatre, but they are quite rare outings for you. Why is that?
Because of the rigorous schedule that it requires. It’s eight shows a week. And I’ve done it with children, but right now with teenagers? No, there’s just that thing of needing to be on. And as much as people say: “Doing a play, it’s just a performance at night and two shows on Wednesdays and Saturdays.” It actually isn’t. It’s a massive mind commitment, and that’s really tough. But absolutely, when it’s just Keith and I together [at home], that would be a different perspective on it.

Reese Witherspoon

Actor

Of all of the characters you’ve created, is there one that you’d really like to revisit? Maybe you think about it more than the others?
Actually the character I would love to go back to is the character in The Others [the 2001 gothic horror directed by Alejandro Amenábar], Grace. Because I feel like The Others gets overlooked and I loved that character.

Happiest moment of your life?
Anonymous
Oh, birth of my children. Yeah, beyond, no question, no question. So my husband whispering in my ear while I’m pushing [laughs].

SJ Watson

Author of Before I Go to Sleep

I was lucky enough to meet you during the filming of Before I Go to Sleep and it seems to me that there are two distinct aspects of what you do. First there is the making of the work, which must require extreme levels of emotional intensity and vulnerability. But then inevitably you become the public face of it, which I imagine calls for the opposite. How do you navigate these two different aspects of being “Nicole Kidman” – being an artist, while also being famous?
I’ve been doing this since I was 14 – which is insane – so I have many, many more years of being well-known than I do of not. And I’ve learned how to have a pretty stable, sensible life, which I know sounds boring, but my artistic life is anything but that. So the stability of my home, my family, and who I am has to be very, very strong for me to go off and do the things that I do.

And it’s probably why I seek something like Babygirl, because I like being able to push the boundaries in my artistic life, but then not at all in my home life. And it really is very much a simple life. I live in Nashville, I don’t live in a big city. I live in a quiet place, and I love hiking and I love horses and I love nature, and I love my kids and my husband. And it’s that simple until it isn’t [laughs].

Liane Moriarty

Author of Big Little Lies

What do you miss most about Australia when you haven’t been back for a while?
I had a very unusual trip back [in September] because of my mother’s death. So I miss my parents now, and it’s been a hard road with that, because I’m always used to going to their house, to being with my mum when I go there, and not having that now makes it a whole different place and it takes on a very, very different meaning to me.

But I miss the beach. We don’t live near a beach. I miss my friends, I miss the seafood. I miss my sister and being able to go over to her house because she has six kids, and just being able to be with them. And there’s my aunts and my best friend since I was four, Annette. So I probably miss my family the most when I’m away from Australia. And the humour, because there is a very, very dry sense of humour which is similar to the British humour. So I miss that slightly irreverent, poke-fun-at-yourself thing.

I was born in America, but I’ve got very much Aussie blood. Gum trees and Vegemite and the shark alarm at the beach, and we would just be like, “Yeah, whatever!” Zinc cream on our noses, lots of freckles, fish and chips… It was a fantastic upbringing: we’d go down to the beach at 7am, we’d take our umbrella, and you would spend the whole day on the beach, and you’d order a burger, and you’d sit there, a burger with beetroot. And for a fair-skinned girl, that’s a thing. I’d be covered in white zinc cream, but I’d get sunburned, and I’d peel my nose until it bled. Terrible, terrible!

So that was my upbringing: barefoot, running through the bush and covered in leeches, jumping in swimming holes. A really good Aussie life, and that’s why I can ride horses. All of that, I wouldn’t change it.

Naomi Watts

Actor

Your mum [who was a nursing instructor and member of the feminist Women’s Electoral Lobby in Australia] was a remarkable woman: strong, kind, didn’t suffer fools. I see so much of her in you. What parts of her do you see in yourself? What lessons from her would you like to pass on to your daughters?
Analytical thinking, critical thinking. She was always the smartest woman in the room, which is not me, but I aspire to it. She would read all the time. She was a huge believer in education. She would love to debate things from all sides so that you could really solidify why you felt something. I so appreciate that. She would challenge you. She wasn’t afraid to tell you that you were not good, or that you needed to pull your head in, or that you needed to try harder, or you needed to take it easy.

One of the last things she said to me was: “Take care of yourself, Nicky”, which was said not as a final goodbye, but it was just said in one of our hour-long phone conversations. So I would love to be able to pass on the maternal love that she had to my daughters, and the resilience, and the ability also to be in any room with any person without judgment. And they’re already showing signs of it. They listen and they have huge empathy, which I love. They love animals. My mother loved animals. To the point that we gave them human attributes. So my dog is called Julian. I think having an animal as a child is so important, because you learn to take care of something and raise something with tenderness. So all of that.

Quote from the 1996 movie The First Wives Club: “There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney and Driving Miss Daisy.” To what extent is this still true?
Keri
We’re trying to break that. I’m really determined for that not to be true. Babygirl hopefully is part of breaking that mould, and trying to support female directors means that will be changed ultimately. Because the more we have the female voices in equal numbers in our cinema world, the more we’ll have stories told that break that mould.

Ali Smith

Author

In 2015 in London I was lucky enough to see you give one of the most quietly arresting live performances I’ve yet seen by anyone, when you played Rosalind Franklin [the British chemist whose work was central to the discovery of the structure of DNA] in Anna Ziegler’s play, Photograph 51. After you’ve played a person night after night, living and breathing in front of an equally live and breathing audience, does that person (especially if you’re playing a real person rather than a fictional one) simply leave you completely – or is there still a residue of Ziegler’s Franklin somewhere in you even now?
My father was a scientist. He was a biochemist, and so the idea of women in science not being recognised for their contributions resonated deeply. I still feel very sad for her that she was hoodwinked out of her discovery. I also hated that she died of ovarian cancer at 37. She found somebody she was interested in, and then subsequently died. So I think because my mother had breast cancer, there’s always something there where I go… [intake of breath]. So there’s many aspects of her life, but the idea of championing underdogs is a theme that I enjoy.

Michael Grandage

Director

We’ve collaborated on a play [Photograph 51] and made a film together [Genius], and in both I was aware it was important to your process to balance the seriousness of what you are doing, while maintaining an element of fun. As your career develops, does one become more important than the other?
The more relaxed you are, and playful, the better you are as a human. So I try to be in a state of playfulness when I’m on a set, because we’re there to play and discover. I don’t have trouble accessing the deep emotions, so I really try to seek out the humour and the playfulness, because probably my nature is geared towards the more serious. So that’s why I’m always like, “Well, now let’s play.” And I love to have fun, and I love to laugh.

Elin Hildebrand

Author of The Perfect Couple

Would you please describe why working with a female director is important to you, especially in light of the intense sexual scenes in Babygirl. How did Halina Reijn’s directing affect your performance?
I don’t think I could have given the performance with a male director. She was the one that wrote it. She was the one that understood it. A man directing this, it wouldn’t have been the same, because he can’t actually be in my body, but she can. We share that form, and so we have the ability to communicate telepathically almost, with an understanding of what our bodies will do. And all bodies are different, but there’s a safeness, and there’s a secrecy almost to the sexuality that had to be shared. And that’s why it was a very, very, very different experience for me.

Have you ever turned down a role and then really regretted it? If so, what was it?
Martin McDonald
Yes, of course. But no, I can’t say, because once a role is claimed by another actor, that’s just the way it is. That’s the fate of the film gods. But there’s definitely ones where I’ve gone: “Oh, that would have been nice to be able to do that.” And there’s many times I haven’t been able to, or I’ve chosen family, and so that’s never a regret.

So there’s no regret there, but it would have been interesting to play it, but you can play it in your mind. That’s why I’m a big believer in trying to lucid dream. I love lucid dreaming. I discovered it as a kid, where I would go: “OK, my real life right now is not the life I want to be living. So I’m going to close my eyes and try to live the life I want to be living in my dreams.” And I would really, really try.

And I used to think: “Oh, I’m the only person in the world that can do this.” And I couldn’t always do it – but I could also wake up in the middle of a dream and go: “I don’t like how this is going. I’m going to try to change the ending now.” And I’’d put myself back to sleep and change the ending.

Mark Strong

Actor

As someone with some experience of playing the villain, would you say you or Hugh Grant were the better Paddington baddie?
Hugh Grant, no question, but I’d like us both to be baddies together. We need to be. But Hugh is jaw-droppingly brilliant, and I love him. Talk about irreverent. Even the other night at the Governors awards, he and Richard Curtis brought the house down, they are unstoppable. Come on, who can do that? That’s just comedic brilliance, the two of them, taking the piss out of each other.

Does being a mum of two teenage daughters influence your selection of film/TV roles, and if so, how? What roles are you most proud to share with them?
Deb
Definitely, when they were young, I did Paddington for them. I did Happy Feet. I did things that they would really love. My daughter, Sunday, now wants Big Little Lies [season] three, so she’s been a massive influence on that. She was like: “No, you have to do this.” And she was the engine behind it.

Stephen Campbell Moore

Actor

Hey Nicole! Can you talk a bit about working as producer and actor on the same project and how each of those two roles can enhance or inhibit the other?
I feel like the director has to be the leader, and you have to be part of their troupe. You can’t be telling them what to do. So in the lead-up, the pre-production and the post-production, I’ll help. But I really try to stay in my place as an actor during production.

Nicole, do you have a favourite Keith Urban song, and why? Does Keith have a favourite of all your movies?
Jeanie Mackinder
He has a new album out, High, and I really feel him in it. He has a lot of really beautiful songs: Messed Up As Me, I really love; Dodge in a Silverado, which is gorgeous if you like country music. But oh wow, I don’t think I can answer for him. He was pretty fascinated by Dogville. He loved Moulin Rouge!. Dead Calm because he went and saw that, and he didn’t know me then. He watched Big Little Lies and says it was painful because of seeing what I was going through. So that, for him, was an unusual experience.

Susanne Bier

Director

Do you have any specific rituals that you have to do every time before you go on set/start a new film?
Before I start it, I have to do all my prep so that I feel that I’m coming in ready so I can discard it. But I can’t start something feeling like I’m on the back foot. And when I’m actually filming a lot of times, if there’s an ocean, I’ll go and get in the ocean, even if it’s five in the morning. Because I love to put the saltwater on my body, even if it’s for five seconds. Even better if it’s cold. Even in Cape Cod, when we were shooting on The Perfect Couple, I’d go dive in the ocean where they had the massive shark sign saying: “Do not swim.” I’d just ignore that. I wasn’t swimming laps, but I just love putting my head under. And I loved having a quick dip up in Monterery when we were doing Big Little Lies. Meryl Streep would be like: “You did not just go in the ocean then.” And it’s the Pacific, so it’s really cold.

David Thomson

Film critic

Which of your projects seemed the most dangerous at the time, and now looking back which feels the most scary?
Babygirl actually now, looking back, I go: “Well, that was more scary than I realised.” Because I didn’t see it as scary at all. Like at all. I didn’t see Birth as something that could be interpreted the way it was interpreted. I just saw it as a dissertation on grief. But when I look back at, say, working with Stanley [Kubrick], that seemed like it was going to be incredibly intimidating and frightening, and it was probably one of the most nurturing places I’ve been.

Isn’t that crazy? That’s crazy. That’s why I have such affection for him, because we had a similar mindset, just a way of approaching life. He was mischievous, talk about playful. Stanley was really playful with us. Usually you’re racing against the clock, but Stanley wouldn’t allow time to dictate. And that’s pretty fabulous.

And when I look back, I don’t think I minded how long it took, because if you’re fighting against a situation, it’s going to be torturous. The acceptance of it allows it to be and then you can enjoy it. And we’re here to have a good life. You can choose the torture of it, or you can accept what it is and take it for what it is. That’s very much my father. I don’t always do it, but I try.

Sam Mendes

Director

I had the pleasure of watching you become a great stage actor during rehearsals for The Blue Room in 1998… What do you get out of performing on stage that you don’t get out of film and television?
The immediacy. The absolute right-here, right-now immediacy, which is addictive. And I do think theatre is the future, partly because when things like AI are becoming so important, I actually think flesh and blood and seeing people and smelling them and watching their skin colour change, and the tears come out of their eyes – which is why I love small theatres – I think that’s going to become more and more powerful in the future. I hope it is. So that’s why I want to do more of it. And I think it’s incredibly important, the humanness of it. It’s deeply human, theatre.

Halina Reijn

Director

As an actress, I have worked with hundreds of actors and witnessed many different approaches to “the work”. When you came to me, you were so well prepared, with your binder, notes, questions and deep understanding of the script and the character Romy, which I loved and related to so very much. So on the one hand you are insanely well prepared, but on the other you allow yourself to be fully in the moment. Can you explain how you balance the two?
Because once you’re in it, your job is to be completely in it on the set. If the scene is written for it to be sunshine, and it’s pouring with rain, you go with the rain. You don’t get stuck on anything that you imagined, prepared, because otherwise that’s going to kill you. But the preparation gives you the character. So Romy had to be in my cellular makeup, but then I had to be completely open to being changed or whatever was coming at me, either from the other actors or from the environment, so that then that would bleed into what was happening now. Because that’s more interesting than anything I could imagine or plan, right?

I saw Lars Von Trier’s Dogville as a teenager in 2003. It remains one of the most shocking films I have ever watched. What are your strongest memories of making the movie?
James Vinall
I just remember arriving in Trollhättan in Sweden, and Lars was there. And we were all living in a little guest house: Lauren Bacall and Patricia Clarkson and Paul Bettany. It was snowing all the time and it would get dark by 1pm and Lars would be like: “OK, we’re shooting in the morning, and then we’re having peach schnapps in the afternoon.” I just remember my agent at the time saw what was going to be the film, the sets and he was like: “No, you cannot do this.” And I was like: “I’m absolutely doing it.” And it was crazy but exquisite, just because it was so strange, and Brechtian. I was just grateful that somehow he was given the money to make that film, right? Probably wouldn’t be given it today.

I would hike those mountains in Trollhättan. I’d put on my snow shoes, and go out because we weren’t shooting in the afternoon. And I wrote a script when I was there, which I’ve still got to finish. It’s actually a really good idea, but I just never quite finished it. It’s a horror film.

Do you believe in luck? Do you think you are a lucky person?
Elif Aktug
Absolutely. There’s a lot of fairy dust that has been sprinkled. Whatever you want to call it, I believe in it. It’s being in the right place at the right time. It also feels good to believe in it. It takes away any idea that you’re controlling anything. But not bad luck, only good luck!