‘I WON’T LET MYSELF BE EXPLOITED
The iconic actress celebrates the most amazing 12 months of her career and talks sex scenes and Big Little Lies: the sequel
It’s no exaggeration to say that 2017 has been the year of Nicole Kidman. Not only did she start it off with an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the moving true-life story Lion, but she then went on to win two Emmys for her TV mini-series Big Little Lies, one for Best Actress and one as producer. As if that weren’t enough, she lit up swoonsome period movie The Beguiled with Colin Farrell, and dazzled in the role of put-upon feminist hippy mum Julia in Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake: China Girl. Now she’s starring in one of her most demanding and peculiar films yet. She’s teamed up with maverick Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos – who made oddball black comedy The Lobster – for The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, in which she again stars alongside Colin Farrell, this time playing his wife who indulges his fetish for having her undress and lie on the bed as if she’s unconscious.
Kidman, who turned 50 earlier this year, has always gone for bold career choices, from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, in which she played sexy games with her then real-life husband Tom Cruise, to playing Grace Kelly in the much-derided biopic Grace Of Monaco. Now, though, she’s on an extraordinary run of unparalleled critical acclaim, and she seems more determined than ever to do whatever the hell she likes. Next up, she’s juggling two massively contrasting projects: an intense drama called Boy Erased with her and Russell Crowe as parents of a gay teenager forced to undergo conversion therapy, and the superhero blockbuster Aquaman, where she’ll star as the title character’s powerful mother.
As for this current release, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Kidman says she was so determined to land a part in the film, she sent text after text to the director asking, “Is there a part for me?” Thankfully there was, and what a challenging part it is…
Is The Killing Of A Sacred Deer one of the oddest roles you’ve ever done? No, because I’ve worked with odd directors before. I love directors that see the world differently –Stanley Kubrick and Jane Campion. I mean, if you look at Top Of The Lake: China Girl, that is so off-kilter, but very, very perceptive, detailed and accurate, I think. Are these the weirdest sex scenes you’ve ever had in your life – being thrown down on the bed and playing dead? Oh no. I think I’ve done a few of those. But I thought it was pretty extraordinary, just lying there. I read it and I re-read it and then I read it again, but it’s really unusual and interesting in what it says about the relationship. I don’t view them as sex scenes because I view the interaction between people sexually. I don’t label them sex scenes, because they’re still part of the narrative. If they are sex scenes, then they’re exploitative and they’re not something that I’m interested in. If they’re telling the story, like in Big Little Lies, where they’re very much about what the characters are, who they are and the way they interact socially. That was important. Big Little Lies was so amazing on so many levels. We’re surprised that you’re still standing after those domestic violence scenes. The physicality was very intense… And real. Were you surprised by the reaction to the show? And did you know this was going to be one of the definitive performances of your career? No, I was just grateful to have a role! I think I always approach everything as an actor going, “I hope I can just be true to this story telling.” Whether it then connects or not is a whole separate thing. You’ve seen my career roller coaster over the decades, but I suppose my intention and my desire is pure, still. The agenda behind everything is that I just want to go and work with great people. I want to connect. I love the idea of storytelling and pushing boundaries, whether it’s entertaining, emotionally moving or disturbing – all
of the ways in which we get to alter people’s lives through cinema and through television. And you had a producing credit on Big Little Lies as well… Oh, yeah. This was like our baby. Reese [Witherspoon] and I were so committed to getting this made, and we’re in the midst of getting season two made, so we’re working so hard to get that done. We’re very grateful for the support and the love that the show has been given, truly, because we never thought it would be lauded or received in this way. For the critics to get behind it now and really support it is just phenomenal.
Have you found that’s easier in the television world, as opposed to movies, in terms of just getting things done? It’s not easy. You have to convince people to put the money there, you have to convince them that it’s going to work. And you have to kind of trick yourself that it’s going to work, because when you actually think about it, you go, “Oh my gosh, what are we doing?” You’re now 50 and are having an incredible year of roles. How does that feel? It makes me cry, because to have this year with all of these things coming together at the same time, it’s phenomenal. I don’t know how that happened, because it was not thought out, but it was given to me that way and I bow down and I’m very, very grateful. None of it goes unnoticed. You’re doing Boy erased, a movie about gay conversion therapy now… I am, and with Joel Edgerton [Warrior, Bloodline] directing. I’m so proud of it. Do you play a terrible mother in this, too? Oh, you can’t ask me to say that. [Laughs.] And you’re also filming Aquaman? Yes. I’m off tonight to go put on a crown and some mother of pearl and play a queen – a sea queen. Do your daughters, Faith and Sunday, have any interest in going into acting? They do, actually. They have an interest in a lot of things, though. They have an enormous interest in cats right now – and dogs – way more than acting. And I flew in this morning from a gymnastics class [they’re doing] in Nashville. The kids are doing a whole lot of things. How would you feel if they did decide to be actors? I would love it. I would love whatever they want to do. I ask them and they roll their eyes. When I say, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” they roll their eyes at me right now. well, they’re young [nine and seven]… Exactly. It is a perfect response – “I want to be everything.” n The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is in cinemas now
‘My kids are more into cats and dogs than acting’