PROVIDING A VOICE
In St. Petersburg to celebrate Omega’s Her Time exhibition, Nicole Kidman tells rubin khoo that she sees herself as a conduit for storytelling
Nicole Kidman is a conduit for storytelling
Before I commence, let me confess – I am a huge Nicole Kidman fan. For years, I declared that if I ever had the opportunity to interview the Oscar-winning actress, I would be done. Given the context, one can imagine the anticipation that commenced the moment the invitation to celebrate Omega’s Her Time exhibition in St. Petersburg, Russia, arrived on my desk.
In the months ahead, anyone I conveyed the news to, responded with the expected, “You have to take a photo with her.” After all, in today’s world, if it isn’t on Instagram, it doesn’t “exist”. At the event, it took me a while to muster the courage but after a couple of glasses of champagne, when Kidman was leaving the gala, I headed towards her, urged by Marion Caunter who was also at the event.
I blurted out the typical, “I am your biggest fan,” and asked for a quick photo. Sadly, she declined saying that there were no photos that evening, “to be fair to everyone.” But there was such grace in the way she turned me down, putting her hand across my shoulder, assuring me that my declaration, “meant a lot” to her, as she proceeded to thank the rest of the Malaysian contingent. While this was going on, there was no manager hurrying her along, or bodyguards trying to push me away, which is pretty much the norm in situations like these.
“You know,” Caunter says to me, “sometimes they will take a picture with you but they don’t look happy about it. In this case, she didn’t take a picture with you but she was so pleasant about it. You had a special moment”
They say you should never meet your idol because they will most likely disappoint but that evening, Kidman proved that adage wrong.
On both occasions that I had the opportunity to meet Kidman, first at the press conference and at the gala dinner later, it was certainly evident that sincerity and authenticity is at the heart of who she is, as an actress, and as an individual.
For one, she informs us early on that the smartphone isn’t something she likes to carry around.
“I like to have boundaries as to the amount of technology I allow into my brain,” immediately distinguishing herself from the insta-famous.
As the press conference unfolds, it becomes evident why Kidman is the stellar actress she is. She speaks of her trip to Russia in romantic terms, referencing literature and philosophy, a testament to her introspective nature and her methodology as an actress.
“It’s gorgeous,” she says, of her maiden voyage to the historic city. “I grew up reading Russian literature. It became one of my passions very early on. Even last night when we were on the boat ride there were places Dostoyevsky referenced. Being able to put the imagery to novels that are deep within me is pretty satisfying.”
Her love for literature is the
“I don’t care about the size of the role, I’m interested in stretching and exploring”
– Nicole Kidman
consequence of an introverted childhood. She wishes she was a little more outgoing in her 20s and 30s but she attributes that being shy has helped her in the expression of her craft.
“It has allowed me to read and absorb things and it led me to acting,” she says. “It is because of my introverted nature which I could funnel into my art. And that’s where I’ve explored so many things more than in my real life. I have a wild imagination. I grew up daydreaming and then I also feel things strongly. I’m highly sensitive to the world and to be able to funnel that through characters and artistically has given me the ability to have this career. I still want to explore, reach out and connect through that. You know as an actor, you look at the world through different lenses. That’s an extraordinary position to be in. I’ve always been able to jump into other people’s psyches.”
Evidence of this is the diverse characters for which Kidman has received Oscar nominations. Her first was for her portrayal of the tragic courtesan Satine in the musical extravaganza Moulin Rouge (2001). Next, she told of the internal torments that plagued the writer Virginia Woolf, a role which earned her a Best Actress Oscar for The Hours (2002). Then came the tale of Becca, a suburban mum who copes with the loss of her son in the film Rabbit Hole (2010). Her latest nomination came in the supporting actress category for her role in Lion (2016), playing a mother whose adopted son goes in search of his natural mother. This year she received a Best Actress Emmy for her role in BigLittleLies, a series she co-produced with Reese Witherspoon, citing the limited roles for women.
Now, she says, she has the luxury of taking on roles that are new or have special meaning to her.
“I don’t care about the size of the role,” she states. “I’m interested in stretching and exploring.”
Case in point is the recently released Boy Erased. In it, Kidman plays a mother who deals with her son’s homosexuality by sending him for gay conversion therapy. The film is receiving Oscar buzz but Kidman is pretty modest about it.
“I play the support role,” she says. “Joel Edgerton, who’s an Australian director, wrote the role for me. I’m in that wonderful position where occasionally a writer or director will say I wrote this for you and then send it my way. Joel is a very good friend of mine. We came up through the ranks in Australia at the same time and I just wanted to support that film. We’ll be taking it to the Toronto Film Festival. I’ve also got another film in competition there and that’s called TheDestroyer and in that I play the lead role. They’re very, very different which is part of the pull for me.”
Not having to take on every role offered to her means that Kidman now has the luxury of time, which has become increasingly precious as she and her musician husband Keith Urban contemplate the next phase of her life.
“I just want to live much longer,” she says. “I don’t know what’s ahead but I pray that I would be blessed just have the chance to see my grandchildren. That makes me cry but that would be the biggest thing I would ask for. Who knows, we don’t control any of that, but I pray for that.”
Her philosophy of time, makes her an apt ambassador for Omega, a role she has held for nearly two decades. More so, she is the perfect guest of honour at an exhibition that celebrates Omega’s longstanding relationship with women which spans more than a century.
“There’s no company like them,” she says. “There’s an enormous amount of respect. They care about the quality of their products and advancing them. The intricacy of their watches is so extraordinary. They’re the best of the best.”
The synergy Kidman shares with Omega goes beyond just expert craftsmanship but also through the way the company contributes to the world.
“They are global and they care about being a global citizen and I love that,” she says. “I really believe by travelling and seeing the world, the world becomes smaller and we become more connected.”
Kidman too has spent more than a decade highlighting the plight of disenfranchised women through her work as United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Women, a role she has held since 2006. With the onset of the MeToo movement, she believes, women’s rights have been pushed to the forefront and that the time for women is now.
“Change happens very, very slowly,” she states. “And sometimes it can happen in an extreme way so it can then be rebalanced, so we can carve a niche where there’s equilibrium but this is happening now because we need (the voices) to be heard.”
Providing that voice is something that connects with her since she sees her role as an actress as being about telling stories with compassion and empathy.
“I really see that as part of my job,” she says. “Of being able to bridge things and build stories that help with understanding and compassion and politically, being able to see through different lenses. You can do that without judgement as an actor, which is a very good place to be.”