One of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood since the 1990s, Nicole Kidman defied time to win the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, upending her glamorous image in “Babygirl,” a new-generation erotic thriller.
In her absence, a message from the 57-year-old actress was read on stage: “I learned shortly after my arrival in Venice of the death of my mother Janelle Kidman. I am in shock and I must be with my family. This award is for her.”
The actress seen in “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999) and “Moulin Rouge” (2001), who has never left the screen, exposes herself as rarely in this new role where she plays a New York tech magnate having a sulphurous affair with a young intern who drags her into a soft SM game.
Few stars of his fame appear on all fours lapping up a cup of milk in a game of submission, naked, from behind, or getting botox injections.
“It’s a film about desire, pleasure, inner flaws, secrecy, marriage, truth, power and consent,” the Australian-American summed up in Venice. “It’s a woman’s story and I hope it’s liberating. It’s told by a woman (director and screenwriter Halina Reijn) and, through her female gaze, that’s what makes it so unique to me.”
An actress not afraid to transform herself, Kidman was most recently the comic icon Lucille Ball in the film “Being the Ricardos.” Her performance earned her an Oscar nomination in 2022 for best actress, but fell short of her second statuette, after the one in 2003 for her portrayal of British writer Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
To play the tormented novelist, Nicole Kidman had read her entire work, even imitating her writing when she struggled with “Mrs Dalloway,” the novel that serves as the central theme for Stephen Daldry’s film. The role required the actress to hide her red curls under a dull wig and make herself ugly with a fake nose.
– Reinvention –
Reinvention is the trademark of the actress who remains essential in an industry that is nevertheless merciless with women over forty.
The high school dropout to pursue her career gained early access to the Hollywood elite thanks to teen films such as “BMX Bandits” (1983).
She has also tried her hand at independent cinema, as in 1995 in “Prête à tout” by Gus Van Sant or in 1999 in “Eyes Wide Shut” by Stanley Kubrick.
Nicole Kidman has also been drawn to the world of series, recently applauded for her roles in “Top of the Lake: China Girl” by Jane Campion, “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing” with Hugh Grant (two works of which she is also a producer).
Born on June 20, 1967 in the Hawaiian Islands, in Honolulu, Nicole Mary Kidman spent her childhood in Australia and was first passionate about dance.
At the age of 16, she starred in a successful Australian TV film, before making a series of appearances on the small screen and finding her first film role in the thriller “Dead Calm” (1989).
She has almost no dialogue, but her presence is eloquent enough that after seeing the film, Tom Cruise chose her to be his partner in “Days of Thunder” (1990).
The actress was 22 years old. It was the beginning of a relationship marked by a marriage and two adoptions, which would end ten years later in a resounding divorce.
In 2006, she married New Zealand-born country musician Keith Urban, with whom she has two daughters.
In 2002, she was first nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category for her role in the film “Moulin Rouge” and was nominated again in 2011 for “Rabbit Hole.”
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