Here’s why Nicole Kidman said yes to The Goldfinch
When Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman accepted the role of the elegant Park Avenue matriarch of the wholly dysfunctional Barbour family in The Goldfinch, the filmmakers were beyond thrilled. The actor reveals it was due, in no small part, to the director, John Crowley.
“I saw Brooklyn and very much wanted to work with John Crowley, so that was perhaps the biggest draw for me. And then I read the script and the book and said I’d love to be involved.”
The Goldfinch is a comingof-age story, adapted from Donna Tartt’s globally acclaimed bestseller of the same name that won the 2014 Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
The film helmed by Baftawinning Crowley also features actors Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Finn Wolfhard, among others.
Talking about her character, Kidman adds, “One thing I found quite intriguing about Mrs Barbour is that she doesn’t initially respond to Theo (played by Ansel). She welcomes him into her home because it’s the right thing to do, but at the same time she’s very held back. There is a stoicism to her and a kind of quietness. Her ability to open up to this child is limited, and I think that’s an interesting way to start their relationship.”
The actor further says, “I think the way in which Theo and Mrs Barbour connect is through their mutual appreciation of art. But also, as you see through this film, there is a way in which memory is attached to particular objects and to art, and then it becomes not so much about the object but the feeling it elicits, and how that can transport you.”