WHAT ‘DESTROYER’ DID TO NICOLE
In this gritty Los Angeles film noir, the actress plays a detective propelled by pure rage
NICOLE KIDMAN | Actress
Nicole Kidman has entered a phase of her career so prolific that you could watch her in three different movies this fall alone. Still, you’ve never seen her do anything quite like Destroyer.
In this gritty Los Angeles film noir from director Karyn Kusama, Kidman plays Erin Bell, a detective so worn down by a lifetime of tragedy that she seems barely alive. Her eyes redrimmed as she lurches down the street, Erin is propelled by pure rage, and Kidman burrows so deeply into that anger that she becomes unrecognisable.
When we met up at a West Hollywood hotel last month to discuss the film, for which she’s received a Golden Globe nomination, Kidman spoke as if she were just awakening from the spell
Destroyer had cast on her. Kusama is a “muscular filmmaker, and she really pushed me into places I haven’t been before,” Kidman said. “Karyn’s not verbose, she’s tough: She’ll just be like, ‘OK, good.’ But I’m Australian, so I don’t need all that. We could communicate almost telepathically, and she protected my space.”
Destroyer is out in the UAE on Thursday, just a few weeks after Kidman appeared in Aquaman as the superhero’s queen mother. She can also be seen in this autumn’s Boy Erased, and will go toe to toe with Meryl Streep in a highly anticipated second season of Big Little
Lies that runs on HBO next year. “I’m trying to stay in that place of making interesting choices and staying true to my essence,” Kidman told me. “When I get off that, I start flailing.”
Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How did you feel the day before you began Destroyer?
Terrified! I just felt like I was not going to be able to do it, and then when I showed up on set, I don’t think I spoke to anybody. I was shut down, but that’s Erin.
What’s so bracing about Erin is that she doesn’t care about what anyone thinks of her, or even whether she will survive the case she’s working on. Is it freeing to play someone like that, or is it scary?
Definitely freeing. She’s a dangerous person. A lot of times, I would let out a huge yell or a growl before I would start, which I know sounds insane.
Well, she’s a very primal character.
“I’M NOT GOING TO DO A CHARACTER WHERE I CAN’T PLAY THE WHOLE ARC OF HER — IT WOULD BE UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATING.”