BEST BREAKUP EVER?
Nicole Kidman says Cruise divorce actually boosted her acting career
Nicole Kidman has said that her divorce from Tom Cruise was the best thing that happened to her career.
Speaking in London recently at the Women in the World ( WITW) conference, the award- winning actress said the breakdown of her marriage meant she focused her attention on her job.
However, she also admitted it was one of the loneliest times of her life.
“I was running from my life at that time, I wasn’t able to handle the reality of it and as an actor you have this wonderful thing where you can go and get lost in somebody else’s life,” said Kidman, 48. “Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me.
“That culminated in winning an Oscar ( for The Hours) and that caused an epiphany which was, ‘ This isn’t the answer.’ I was holding a gold statue and I was the loneliest I’d ever been.”
Interviewed on stage by WITW founder Tina Brown, Kidman also touched on her nine- year marriage with Keith Urban. She said: “We didn’t really know each other; we got to know each other during our marriage.”
Talking about her latest project, playing DNA scientist Rosalind Franklin in Anna Ziegler’s play Photograph 51, Kidman said she wept when she first read the script.
“I believe in Rosalind being celebrated and I wanted to put her back in the conversation and dialogue beyond the scientific community,” she said.
Now in its seventh year, the WITW conference aims to give a platform to global women “who are saving lives, enriching communities and shattering glass ceilings.”
This year’s lineup included Meryl Streep, model Cara Delevingne and Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee.
Delevingne, 23, talked about the difficulties of being a successful model. After kicking off her high heels, she said: “In our culture, we are told that if we are beautiful, if we are skinny, successful, famous, if we fit in, if everyone loves us — then we will be happy. But that’s not entirely true. When you start out as a model, you are constantly told you are not pretty enough, not tall enough, not skinny enough. You get battered and bruised a lot but then you have to grow a thick skin.”
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon touched on the subject of domestic violence.
“I believe more passionately than I believe in many things that we need to drive forward gender equality,” she said, “but we won’t when so many women are still victims of violence.”