From the courtesan to the queen of punks: Nicole Kidman — 51 years old
51 years ago, on June 20, 1967, the future famous actress Nicole Kidman was born in Hawaii. Since 1983, Kidman has starred in more than 60 films, won an Oscar, three Golden Globe Awards and many other awards. We remembered the main events from the life and career of the actress.
Nicole Kidman was born on June 20, 1967 in Honolulu, the administrative center of the American state of Hawaii. The actress is considered an Australian, although the family returned to Australia only when Nicole turned four.
As a child, the girl was shy and withdrawn, so her parents sent her to a ballet studio. There she unexpectedly showed acting talent, and then began to study theater history and attend classes of the youth troupe of the Australian Theater and the Philip Street Theater.
Kidman started acting at the age of 15, in Australia. Her first work was a clip of singer Pata Wilson's Bop Girl. And the debut of the 16-year-old actress in the movie was the picture "Bandits on bicycles".
When Nicole was 17 years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the girl could not continue to pay for her education in acting college. Kidman took courses in massage therapists and got a job in a massage parlor. She invested her earnings in paying for a course of treatment and rehabilitation after chemotherapy for her mother.
In 1988, Kidman got the main role in the TV series "Bangkok Hilton".
In 1989, the actress took part in the first Hollywood project — she played the wife of a naval officer in the film "Dead Calm", which was successfully held at the world box office. After that, she was invited to other roles in the United States.
In 1989, on the set of the film "Days of Thunder" Kidman met actor Tom Cruise, who became her first husband. Kidman played a doctor girl who is in love with a NASCAR racing driver played by Cruz and helps him recover from an accident. It was the first big role of an Australian woman, for which she received $ 200,000.
Before the appearance of the Pitt —Jolie duo, the couple was considered the most beautiful and loving couple in Hollywood. They adopted two children: Isabella Jane and Connor Anthony.
In 1991, the role of a gangster's mistress in the movie "Billy Bathgate" brought Kidman her first nomination for the Golden Globe Award in the category "Best Supporting Actress".
In 1995, Kidman starred in an uncharacteristic role for independent director Gus Van Sant — in the black comedy "Die in the Name".
After the movie, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise met, they starred together in several more films. In 1992, it was the drama "Far, Far Away".
In 1999, Cruise and Kidman played the main roles in Stanley Kubrick's latest work, With Eyes Wide Closed. The couple signed "open" contracts, agreeing to shoot as much time as Kubrick needs. The filming of the erotic film lasted 400 days, and the film was in post-shooting preparation for another year. The film was released a few months after the death of the director.
Shortly after filming at Kubrick, after 10 years of living together, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman broke up. It is believed that their relationship was damaged by the need to play estranged spouses and spend a lot of time naked. The crew members said that even at the beginning of the work they noticed the tense relationship between Cruise and Kidman, and in the process the actors began to openly quarrel.
Journalists assumed that the reason for the divorce could be the religious differences of Catholic Kidman and Scientologist Cruz and the terms of their marriage contract, according to which almost everything went to her husband. However, even after the divorce, the actress in an interview called Cruz the main love of her life and stated that the family might have been saved if they had their own children.
In 2001, the year of their divorce, Kidman and Cruz were interviewed for the documentary "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in the Cinema" — this film can be considered the last work in which they took part together.
There were rumors that during the breakup Kidman was three months pregnant, and after the departure of Cruz, she had a nervous miscarriage. For some time, the actress was depressed after the divorce and did not act, but then she returned to the cinema. In 2001, she played the main role in the musical "Moulin Rouge" by Australian director Baz Luhrmann and performed all the vocal parts herself. It is believed that the film revived the forgotten genre of the movie musical.
Kidman calls the role of the courtesan Satin the most difficult in his career: during filming, she broke a rib twice. At first, the actress was rehearsing a dance in high heels and fell down the stairs, and her partner did not have time to pick her up. Then, wanting to be like Vivien Leigh from Gone with the Wind, Kidman asked the dresser to tighten the corset tighter — and the rib, which had not had time to heal, broke again.
In the same year, the mystical thriller "Others" was released, which collected more than $ 200 million at the box office with a budget of 17 million.
In 2003, Nicole Kidman won an Oscar for her role as Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Clock, becoming the first Australian actress to win in the Best Actress category. The actress played a writer suffering from depression and thoughts of suicide, and her bright appearance for this role was specially "spoiled" with makeup and a false nose.
The film, based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, became one of the most high-profile premieres of 2002. In addition to the Oscar, Kidman received the Berlin Film Festival prize, the British Academy Award and the Golden Globe for it.
In 2003, Kidman starred with the controversial director Lars von Trier in the surreal film "Dogville". At the same time, she spoke about the filming and the difficult relationship with the director in the documentary "Confessions of Dogville": for the sake of the film, Trier was ready to humiliate the actors and provoke conflicts with them. When the Dane decided to make a sequel to "Dogville" with the same heroine, Kidman refused to work with him again.
Nicole Kidman on filming with Trier
In 2006, on Australia Day, Kidman was awarded the Civil Order of Australia, equivalent to a knighthood award in the UK. Along with the actress, the order was awarded to Nobel Prize laureates in medicine Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, as well as Treasury Secretary Ken Henry. Governor General Michael Jeffery noted Kidman's contribution to cinema, healthcare and the fight against cancer.
In 2006, the actress married for the second time — her husband was Australian singer Keith Urban.
With her second husband, the actress at 41 managed to give birth to her own child after many years of infertility. The couple has two daughters: eight-year-old Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban and six-year-old Faith Margaret Kidman-Urban, who was carried out by a surrogate mother. For some time, due to pregnancy, the Australian refused new roles.
In 2014, Kidman reincarnated as Grace Kelly for the film "The Princess of Monaco", which was defeated by film critics.
In 2016, the drama directed by Garth Davis "The Lion" was released, filmed based on real events: a businessman of Indian origin, adopted by a couple of Australians, 25 years later goes in search of his biological mother. The film received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Supporting Actress, played by Nicole Kidman.
Kidman met her 50th birthday with the role of the queen of punks in the fantastic drama "How to talk to girls at parties" based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. The film was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
Keywords: Actresses | Hollywood | Directors | Stanley kubrick | Tom cruise | Anniversary