Media Platforms Design Team
I remember the first time I met Nicole Kidman. We were at a Golden Globes party in 2005 and—typical Hollywood story—we share an agent. I remember meeting this tall, beautiful woman who was there with her mom and dad. I was completely starstruck, while she was nothing but gracious. Nicole had just seen one of my rom-coms, as they call them, and was instantly kind and complimentary. I loved her immediately. We've run into each other over the years, keeping in touch. But it was Adam Sandler, of all people, who brought us together in Hawaii to film the comedy Just Go With It. Now not only do I have a dear friend, I can't see myself dancing the hula with any other gal.
Jennifer Aniston: Good lord, I just saw Rabbit Hole. No wonder you went running wildly into the arms of Adam Sandler in Hawaii. I would run as fast as I could just to ... I don't know, laugh? I don't know how you walked through a movie about the death of a child, quite honestly. How did you do it?
Nicole Kidman: I don't know. As soon as we got the rights to make the film, I was terrified. But I have that relationship with everything I do. I want it, then I get it, and then I don't want it. I've worked like that my whole life. So yeah, Maui was definitely a breather.
JA: You are like the Secretariat of actresses—when I see your body of work and everything you have achieved. But in the midst of all these unbelievable roles, I forgot how funny you can be.
NK: I know, you kept saying to me that I was funny, and I was like, Really? I never get asked to do comedy! I get asked more to do the Rabbit Hole stuff. But I remember doing SNL with Adam Sandler years ago, and he said to me, "I want to make you funny in a film one day."
JA: Do you remember, we had a total of 15 minutes' rehearsal for our hula scene?
NK: We were so lazy.
JA: You were being such a good student and doing your hula, and I was actually thinking, Aren't we just going to wing this? Neither of us was supposed to know how to hula in the scene. I just thought that would be funnier and would lend itself to more physical comedy.
NK: Hear, hear! I second you.
JA: What attracts you to a project? What's the key element that has to be there?
NK: Usually something strange. It's a little weird or offbeat or very uncomfortable. I have to be convinced to do things that are more mainstream. As a kid, I was always a bit, I suppose, darker. I was drawn to things that were unusual. And that's partly to do with my parents. My mom's always questioned things, wanted us not to conform. So, with roles, I like to be in a place of discomfort. I do my best work in the most complicated roles. I don't have the capacity to be lighter, and I so wish I did. I'm working on it. And I don't get offered stuff that I go, Wow, I can't wait to do that.
But so much of that is about your life partner, the person who has held you in their arms at night, who has helped you through things. You've given to them, and you've seen them get their dreams. ... When I won it, I gave it to my mom. She gave me the confidence to go after things. She would listen to me when I thought it was all over. She's been my rock. So to be able to give her that was my way of saying thank you to her.
JA: I feel awkward getting into interviewer mode, but tell me about your life in Nashville with Keith [Urban] and Sunday Rose. How long have you now lived there?
NK: Five years.
JA: I was just down South in Georgia, and it was heaven to be away from all the irritation of the cameras and all that hubbub. Was moving to Nashville something that both you and Keith wanted to do?
NK: It was perfect timing, because I had nowhere to live. I was living out of suitcases when I met Keith. I suppose in the back of my mind I was waiting to meet somebody. And I wanted it to be that if that person didn't live in New York or Los Angeles, I would be able to move. In the back of my head, I was thinking I may have to put my roots down somewhere. I was going to move to Oregon.
JA: Oregon? It's gorgeous. I understand that absolutely.
NK: Yeah. I love living a ways away. That's what I've worked for in my career, to not have to live in Los Angeles. So it was fortuitous that Keith happened to live in Tennessee. He brought me down to this place called Leipers Fork, just outside of Nashville, very lush and rural. I just went aaah. You know how you dream as a girl; I'm one of those people. I would meet a guy, then I would imagine myself married and with kids within the first hour. [Laughs] But it worked out.
JA: When you two first met, Keith said he saw you walk into the room and you just floated. Yes, I watched him on Oprah! Did you feel it as instantly as Keith felt it?
NK: I remember thinking, Oh, my God, if you ever gave me a man like that, I promise I would be completely devoted for the rest of my life. Something that wild. I remembered praying after I met him that I'd meet somebody, if not him, like him.
JA: He's a total sweetheart. I remember him bringing you Chinese food on set, being such a good husband while we were all being silly and playing with coconuts. I'm so inspired by how you navigate this exquisite career and how you've incorporated this wonderful, beautiful family. I bow to it; I aspire to it. But it's a big bite to chew. How has having kids changed you from your 20s to now?
NK: I had kids at 25 and 27 [Isabella and Connor, Nicole's adopted children with first husband Tom Cruise]. I think I have more patience now but less physical energy. It's a trade-off: In your 20s, you're bounding around, they're attached at your hip, and you can just go and do anything. But I'm much more of a homebody now. My roots are deeper. I probably have way more mental energy and a lot less physical energy, if that makes sense.
JA: What's your biggest concern as they go through their teenage years?
NK: I think it's finding their bliss. You've got to find your bliss as a human being, because if you can follow that, everything else falls into place. So that's what I wish for them. That means careerwise and just the essence of who we are as people.
JA: Did you always want to act?
NK: I think I did. Did you?
JA: Yeah, I did. It was my family; I came from it too. It looked like so much fun.
NK: For me, it was never going to be work. It was almost like I needed to have a day job, because this was too much fun. But I was a highly sensitive child, and the last thing my parents wanted was for their child to go in and get hurt.
JA: What do you think is the hardest thing about being an actor?
NK: Fame. It's a great thing in the sense of the opportunities it gives you, but you don't realize that you're dancing with the 100-pound gorilla.
JA: Yeah, it turns from Glinda the Good Witch into the nasty green one, then back to Glinda again.
NK: Most actors are highly sensitive people, but you have this incredible scrutiny. You have to develop a thick skin, but you can't have a thick skin in your work. So it's that constant push-pull of going, How do I stay human and vulnerable and real, and how do I, at the same time, not let all this affect me? I suppose it's the same when you're at school and you get a taste of girls who are being mean. It's the same thing, just at a bigger level.
JA: Absolutely. People can be supportive and then turn around and be so mean.
NK: But at the same time, we're in an extraordinary place, and to complain about it you go, Ugh, move on.
JA: You speak the truth, my friend. Okay, let me just say this: Physically, you are a masterpiece.
NK: Excuse me, you wear a bikini in the film and you look like you're 20 years old.
JA: I think that's Vaseline on the lens.
NK: You are a freak of nature. You have the best body I've ever seen. And I'm a heterosexual girl. You look good morning, noon, and night.
JA: Oh, please. I live in jeans and flip- flops. A good tank top, a great pair of jeans, and a great little wedge to give me a couple inches more that my dad didn't give me. Otherwise, I get kind of stumped. I see people walking through New York City and go, Wow, that's a great idea, why didn't I think of that? But, Nicole, you always have that smart look. It's very Annie Hall. I love it.
NK: I like boy-girl looks. I have no sense of what's fashionable; I just know what I like to wear. I don't believe in something being in and out. You know those lists? That probably goes along with the whole way I live my life. I don't like kind of changing with the wind; I like sticking to my own self.
JA: You wear L'Wren Scott a lot, right?
NK: L'Wren's collection, basically, I can wear. I don't have time to look through things. I used to be far more into that when I was in my early 20s, but I just don't have the interest anymore.
JA: If it looks good, the last thing you want to do is try on 10 couture somethings.
NK: Yeah, Renée Zellweger said she's just not interested in having loads of designers make dresses for her; it feels gluttonous. That is so right. It's not the place to be, particularly in your 40s.
JA: Another interviewer question: Has Nashville changed the way you dress?
NK: No, not really.
JA: C'mon, you can tell me. You have a cowboy hat hiding in that closet.
NK: I don't wear cowboy hats. I think they're cute. I sometimes put one on with a bikini, but it's a particular look. I like a cowboy hat on Sunday Rose.
JA: Does Keith buy you clothes?
NK: Yeah, and he buys me lingerie.
JA: Nice! Did you have to train him for your taste?
NK: Ha! I don't train him for anything. That's what I love; he's just got his own way of being.
JA: I think it's always a big one, isn't it?
NK: I like to ask people if they would rather have a great love that lasts a lifetime or an amazing career where you go down in history. Some people do answer that they want an extraordinary career.
JA: I know what I would choose. That's a no-brainer. I would choose the love of my life.
NK: And what would you tell the 20-year-old you?
JA: I would tell myself to have more fun; enjoy this. There was a lot of unnecessary angst. You may as well enjoy things. You're going to turn 30. Are you going to dread it? No, it's happening. This is awesome! Don't worry about something going away; enjoy it while it's happening. And don't worry about something that's not even real.
NK: You are so right. Oh, Sunday's here. She wants to say hi to you.
Sunday Rose: Hi, Jen.
JA: Hi, sweetheart! How are you?
NK: She just woke up ... running around like a mad thing.
JA: On that note, I can't wait to see you, whenever that is. Good luck and congratulations on Rabbit Hole.
NK: Thank you, my darling.
JA:You said when you won the Oscar for The Hours in 2003, it was such a lonely time for you.
NK: Yeah. It's strange how life gives you the best and the worst. I was probably at my least happy when I won it. And I was single. It was a strange time....
JA: Do Isabella and Connor come down to Nashville a lot?
NK: No, they don't. They're not crazy about Nashville. They're so grown up now. I mean, they're adults.
JA: You are in such an amazing place now. What do you think you would tell your 20-year-old self?
NK: That you're going to meet the love of your life. My whole thing, my whole thrust in life, was hoping I would.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qa3RqZyrq5KWx6Kt0WeaqKVfmLKtscGroK2xX6GutbHSrWannaeofKKCk2xmp6GTpLmmecqim6aZnmK2r8DEq62inadifXN9kGg%3D