Nicole Kidman on the challenges of filming

I last talked with Nicole Kidman for “Sunday Morning” several years ago. Not much has happened since then. Just kidding! Kidman is in the middle of a “golden era,” following her Emmy-winning turn in the TV series “Big Little Lies.”

To name just two of her recent projects: the TV series “The Perfect Couple,” co-starring Liev Schreiber; and “Special Ops: Lioness,” with Zoe Saldaña.

Is the sense that time is fleeting part of why she has been so prolific? “Yeah, probably,” Kidman said.

She’s still the better half of country great Keith Urban. But the thing Kidman is getting the most attention for these days is a film coming out on Christmas … and what a film it is. In “Babygirl,” Kidman plays a happily married, successful CEO who is in some ways unfulfilled, so she takes up with a handsome intern (Harris Dickinson, of “Triangle of Sadness”) who knows just how to scratch her particular itch.

I asked, “Was there any point where you thought, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this’?”

“Yeah, yeah. And a lot of it is stamina, ’cause I’m in every frame of the film,” she replied.

To watch a trailer for “Babygirl,” click on the video player below:

Kidman is committed to working a lot with female directors, and in Halina Reijn’s hands, the film is intense and relentless.

I asked: “Do you think part of what makes you do your job – “

“Weird?” Kidman offered.

“Well … weird, yeah, that’s where I was going with that?”

“You can say it!”

“Do you think part of what makes you a good actor is that ability to feel intensely?”

“Probably the thing that I have is the ability to feel, like, really feel,” Kidman said. “I go into hospitals. Keith and I will work where we go … he’ll bring his guitar and we’ll just, you know, in the oncology units. And I have to not absorb someone else’s emotions.”

“Because that’s your tendency? That’s what you tend to do?”

“Yeah. And Keith’s always said, ‘You’re like a raw egg that I have to be the shell for.'”

Kidman doesn’t look all that vulnerable, but when she’s not out being a global superstar, she’s a complete homebody. In fact, the daily routine at her Nashville home, with Keith and their two daughters, might sound a lot like yours. “We have breakfast together every morning, so even if I’m working, I’m up. And then dinners. I also like putting on my jammies and coming home.”

“Are you a homebody?”

“Yeah, putting on my bed socks. But we do have a rule: You can’t put your pajamas on before 5:00 p.m.”

“Why do you have that rule?”

“Because otherwise, you can get into them a lot earlier. Not a good thing!”

But there have been moments, Kidman says, when she seriously thought about being a full-time stay-at-home mom – giving up the whole acting thing. She says that in 2008, after she gave birth to her daughter, Sunday, “I was like, ‘Well, I think I’m pretty much done now.’ I had moved to Nashville. We were living on a farm. And that’s when my mom actually said, ‘I wouldn’t give up completely. Keep a finger sort of in it.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m done now. I’m done.’ She’s going, ‘Just listen to me. I think, keep moving forward. Not saying that you have to do it to the level you’ve been doing it, but I wouldn’t give it up completely.'”

After that, Kidman went on to do some of the best work of her career, and this past April she received the lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.  Her pal Meryl Streep did the honors that night, speaking of Nicole: “The hardest part is when you come up against, or you’re acting with another person who is also really, really, really, really, really, really great. That’s difficult for me!”

Kidman said the honor felt strange. “‘Cause at first I was like, ‘I’m not sure I want this right now. Does that mean it’s over?'”

But for Kidman, who’s already picked up a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in “Babygirl,” the year’s stratospheric highs have been tempered by a devastating loss: Her mother, Jannele, died in September at age 84, as Kidman was en route to the Venice Film Festival for a screening of “Babygirl.”

I asked Kidman, “Did you share with her what it was about?”

“Yeah. She knew. She knew everything,” she replied. “That’s probably the biggest loss, is you lose the person that knows everything, that loves you anyway. I love when people say, ‘There is no limit to your grief. You don’t have to have a time limit on it. You don’t have to be all better by this time.’ So, you’re allowed to constantly let it pass through in waves. … People go, ‘Oh, well, whatever.’ But it’s my mama, my life, and I’m allowed to process it and grieve in the way I want to.”

“Yeah, there is no time limit. And it does come in waves.”

“Yeah, it’s weird.”

“And you never know when it’s gonna hit.”

“Yeah, it’s like it’s a different road,” Kidman said. “When my papa passed – and I suppose it’s good to talk about it all, because so many people in the world are going through it – but it’s just a whole other thing, both parents gone. Just like, ‘Whoa. Okay. Wow.'”

“But that’s okay. And I appreciate your sharing it. Because, like you said, people –”

“Move on quick!” Kidman laughed. “Now I’m embarrassed!”

Kidman may keep her emotions within easy reach, but that’s not a bad thing: In the same face that you might see torrents of rage and grief, you can just as easily see happiness and hope. 

I asked her, “Do you feel like this now is a moment – you know, all of these awards, the festivals, several hit television series – do you feel like you’re in this moment right now?”

“No,” Kidman replied. “I’m just me. But I think ’cause I’ve had so many years of so many different things happening and I’m fully cognizant of where I am, I’m wide awake. I’m in this world. I’m curious, and grateful, and amazed. I love the word wonder, ’cause I still have a lot of wonder, and a lot of excitement about what’s to come.”

Watch an extended interview with Nicole Kidman: 

      
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Story produced by John D’Amelio. Editor: Lauren Barnello.

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