Everything about Nicole Kidman totally explained
Nicole Mary Kidman,
AC, (born
20 June 1967) is an
Academy Award-winning
American-Australian actress. In 2006, she became one of the highest-paid actresses in the motion picture industry. In the same year, Kidman was made a
Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor. She is officially Australia's most successful actress.
After making various appearances in film and
television, Kidman received her breakthrough role in the 1989 thriller
Dead Calm. Her performances in several films, such as
To Die For (1995),
Moulin Rouge! (2001), and
The Hours (2002), have won her much critical acclaim.. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the
Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. Kidman is also a
UNIFEM and
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and a
singer.
She is also well-known for her former marriage to the actor
Tom Cruise and as her current marriage to the noted country musician
Keith Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in
Honolulu, Hawaii, Kidman has
dual citizenship of
Australia and the
United States of America.
Early life and family
Kidman was born in
Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Dr. Antony David Kidman, is a
biochemist and
clinical psychologist with an office in
Lane Cove, New South Wales. At the time of Nicole Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the
National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. The family returned to Australia permanently when Kidman was four years old and Kidman's parents now reside on Sydney's
North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister,
Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist.
Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School in her primary school years, and then she attended the
North Sydney Girls' High School - along with her friend
Naomi Watts. She then studied at the Phillip Street Theater in Sydney. This was followed by studies at the
Australian Theatre for Young People.
Career
Early career in Australia (1983–1989)
Kidman's first appearance in film came in 1983 when, as a fifteen year-old, she appeared in the
Pat Wilson music video for the song
Bop Girl. By the end of the year she'd secured a supporting role in the
television series Five Mile Creek and four film roles, including
BMX Bandits and
Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian movies and TV series, notably including the
soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series
Vietnam (1986),
Emerald City (1988), and
Bangkok Hilton (1989).
In 1982, she might have appeared in the video for
Roxy Music's song "True To Life".
Breakthrough (1989–1995)
In 1989, Kidman starred in
Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (
Sam Neill), held captive on a
Pacific Ocean yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (
Billy Zane). The thriller film garnered strong reviews; the staff of
Variety.com commented: "Throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic
Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "...Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." In 1990, she appeared opposite
Tom Cruise in
Days of Thunder, a
stock car racing movie. After this, Kidman starred with Cruise in
Ron Howard's
Far and Away (1992). In 1995, Kidman featured in the
ensemble cast of
Batman Forever. On
November 20 1993 she hosted
Saturday Night Live.
Critical success (1995–present)
Her second film in 1995,
To Die For was a satirical comedy that earned her praise from critics. She won a
Golden Globe Award, and five other best actress awards for her portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto. Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in
Eyes Wide Shut in 1999,
Stanley Kubrick's final film.
In 2002, Kidman received an
Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 2001 musical film
Moulin Rouge!, in which she played the
courtesan Satine opposite
Ewan McGregor. Consequently, Kidman received her second
Golden Globe Award for
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The same year, she'd a well-received starring role in the horror film
The Others. While in Australia filming
Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her ribs; as a result,
Jodie Foster accepted to replace her as leading actress in the film
Panic Room. In that film, Kidman's voice appears on the phone, as the mistress of the lead character's husband.
The following year, Kidman won critical praise for her portrayal of
Virginia Woolf in
The Hours, in which the prosthetics applied to her made her almost unrecognizable. She won the
Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, along with a
Golden Globe Award, a
BAFTA, and numerous critics awards. Kidman became the first Australian actress to win an Academy Award. During her Academy Award acceptance speech, after tearing, Kidman made a statement about the importance of art, even during times of war: "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honor that, and it's a tradition that needs to be upheld."
Also in 2002, Kidman starred in the stage play "The Blue Room," which opened in New York and London. The play was a stellar success, with Kidman's character briefly exposing her flesh to the audience and very famous persons competing for the best seats in the house.
In the same year, Kidman starred in three very different films.
Dogville, by
Danish director
Lars von Trier, an
experimental film set on a bare
soundstage. Secondly, she co-starred alongside
Anthony Hopkins in the film adaptation of
Philip Roth's novel
The Human Stain.
Cold Mountain, a love story of two
Southerners separated by the
Civil War, was her final release that year, and garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination.
In 2004, Kidman appeared in the critically panned remake of
The Stepford Wives alongside
Glenn Close,
Faith Hill and
Bette Midler. In September of the same year,
Birth, in which the 37-year-old actress' character has an encounter with a 10-year-old boy (played by
Cameron Bright) who attempts to convince her that he's a
reincarnation of her dead husband, was met with a mixed reception primarily due to a scene where the boy strips and joins Kidman in the bathtub. Despite this, the film was nominated for the
Golden Lion Award at the
Venice Film Festival, and Kidman was nominated for another Golden Globe Award. Kidman's two movies in 2005 were
The Interpreter, directed by
Sydney Pollack, the film received mixed reviews, though it did become a considerable success at the box office grossing nearly $165 million worldwide, with its $80 million budget, and
Bewitched, co-starring
Will Ferrell, based on the
1960s TV sitcom of the same name; the latter fared abysmally with critics and made only $131,413,159 at the box office.
In conjunction with her success in the film industry, Kidman became the face of the
Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with
Rodrigo Santoro, directed by
Moulin Rouge! director
Baz Luhrmann to promote the fragrance during the holiday season in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 perfume made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned $US3.71 million. During this time, Kidman was also listed as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005
Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004-2005. On
People magazine's list of 2005's highest paid actresses, Kidman was second behind
Julia Roberts with a US$16 million to US$17 million per-film price tag. She has since passed Roberts as the highest paid actress.
Recently, Kidman appeared in the
Diane Arbus bio-pic
Fur, she also lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which quickly garnered critical and commercial success, the film grossed over $384 million dollars worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science fiction movie The Invasion, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and played opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding. She also starred in the film adaptation of the first part of the planned His Dark Materials trilogy of films, playing the villainous Mrs. Coulter. However, The Golden Compass''s failure to meet expectations at the North American box office has reduced the likelihood of a sequel.
She is also set to star in director
Wong Kar-wai's next film,
The Lady from Shanghai and
Baz Luhrmann's Australian period film titled
Australia, which is set in the remote
Northern Territory during the
Japanese attack on Darwin during
World War II. Kidman will play an English woman feeling overwhelmed by the continent, opposite
Hugh Jackman.
On
25 June,
2007,
Nintendo announced that Kidman is to be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the
Nintendo DS game
More Brain Training in its European market.
Kidman was featured in a series of advertisements for Sky in Italy, speaking Italian during the spots.
It is reported that Kidman will star and produce in an upcoming romantic comedy film called
Monte Carlo. She plays one member of a trio of school teachers on holiday who cut short their no-frills sojourn in Paris and head to Monte Carlo, where they pose as wealthy vacationers. Julia Roberts is tipped to join her in the film.
Kidman was originally set to star in
The Reader (film) a post-war Germany drama, but due to her pregnancy she'd to back out of the film. Shortly after the news of Kidman's departure, it was announced that
Kate Winslet would take over the role.
Singing
Not known as a singer prior to
Moulin Rouge!, Kidman had several well-received vocal performances in the film. Her collaboration with
Ewan McGregor on the song "Come What May" from the film's soundtrack debuted and peaked at 27 in the
UK Singles Chart. Later she collaborated with
Robbie Williams on the song "
Somethin' Stupid", a cover of the old swing song on Williams' swing covers album
Swing When You're Winning. It debuted and peaked at 8 in the
Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at number 1 for three weeks in the UK. It was the UK Christmas number 1 Single for 2001.
In 2006, she provided her voice for the animated movie
Happy Feet, along with her vocals for her character Norma Jean's 'heartsong', which was a slightly altered version of "
Kiss" by
Prince.
Personal life
Relationships
Kidman met
Tom Cruise on the set of their 1990 movie,
Days of Thunder. Cruise was married to actress
Mimi Rogers at the time, and later divorced her. Kidman and Cruise were married on
Christmas Eve 1990 in
Telluride,
Colorado. The couple
adopted two children, daughter Isabella Jane Kidman-Cruise (b.
December 22 1992) and son Connor Anthony Kidman-Cruise (b.
January 17 1995). They separated just after their 10th
wedding anniversary. At the time she was 3 months pregnant and subsequently had a
miscarriage. Tom Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001. The marriage was dissolved in 2001, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences as the cause of the divorce. The reasons for the dissolution have never been made public. Also, in an interview for
Marie Claire magazine, Kidman mentions that she'd an
ectopic pregnancy early in their marriage. In an interview in the June 2006 issue of
Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman reported that she still loved Tom Cruise. Kidman told the magazine: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he's huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she's expressed shock about their divorce. She donated the money to a
Romanian
orphanage in the town where the movie was filmed.
Robbie Williams confirmed that they'd short 'romance' on her yacht in summer 2004. Shortly after her Oscar win, there were unconfirmed rumours of a relationship between her and fellow Oscar winner
Adrien Brody. She met musician
Lenny Kravitz in
2003 and dated him into
2004. Nicole has recently revealed in an interview she was secretly engaged when her divorce from Tom Cruise was legalised and before she met Keith Urban. She declined to reveal who her fiance was, but considering Kravitz was her only major relationship between her two husbands, one could assume it was him.
Kidman met country singer
Keith Urban at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians in
January 2005. Kidman and Urban were married on Sunday
June 25 2006, at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate,
Manly in
Sydney. They maintain homes in Sydney, Los Angeles and
Nashville, Tennessee. In
March 2008, they purchased mansions in both Los Angeles and Nashville within the span of a few days.
After constant speculation by the press, on
January 8 2008, it was confirmed that Kidman is 3 months pregnant and that Kidman and Urban are expecting their first child together. She is reported to be due in July.
Religion
Kidman was raised a
Roman Catholic and currently is a practicing Catholic. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in
North Sydney. However, during her marriage to Tom Cruise, she was reported to be a "half-hearted" follower of
Scientology.
Politics
Kidman's name was included in an advertisement in the
Los Angeles Times (
August 17 2006) that condemned organizations
Hamas and
Hezbollah, and supported
Israel's efforts in the
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
Kidman has made numerous donations to
U.S. Democratic party candidates and endorsed
John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.
Charitable work
Kidman publicly supports a variety of charities and causes. She has been a Goodwill Ambassador for
UNICEF Australia since 1994. She has worked to help raise money for and draw attention to the plight of the most disadvantaged children in Australia and around the world. In
2004, she was honoured as a "
Citizen of the World" by the
United Nations.
On
January 26,
2006, Kidman received Australia's highest civilian honour when she was made a Companion of the
Order of Australia, for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally." However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it wasn't until
13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. She was also nominated
goodwill ambassador for
UNIFEM.
Kidman joined the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast Cancer Care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money for
breast cancer. Kidman's mother, Janelle, is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 1984.
Press & Other
In January 2005, Kidman won interim restraining orders against two Sydney-based
paparazzi photographers.
As of May 7, 2008, it was reported that the 40 year-old pregnant actress will no longer be representing the iconic fragrance
Chanel No. 5. She’s been replaced by French actress
Audrey Tautou, losing out on a reported
$8.5 million contract.
Filmography
Discography
Awards
Government honours
In 2006, Kidman was made a
Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, in recognition of her contribution to the arts and her charity work. The award was presented by
Governor-General of Australia, Major General
Michael Jeffery in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra on
13 April 2007.
Academy Awards
2003 - Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Hours
Berlin International Film Festival
2003 - Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actress for The Hours
Boston Society of Film Critics
1995 - Best Actress for To Die For
British Academy of Film and Television Arts:
2003 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for The Hours
Broadcast Film Critics Association
1996 - Best Actress for To Die For
Golden Globe Awards:
1996 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for To Die For
2002 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for Moulin Rouge!
2003 - Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for The Hours
Kansas City Film Critics Circle
2002 - Best Actress for The Others
Las Vegas Film Critics Society
2003 - Best Actress for The Hours
MTV Movie Awards:
2002 - Best Female Performance for Moulin Rouge!
2002 - Best Musical Sequence for Moulin Rouge!
Prestige Academy of Motion Pictures
1995 - Best Actress for To Die For
2001 - Best Actress for Moulin Rouge!
2001 - Best Musical Sequence for Moulin Rouge!
2002 - Best Actress for The Hours
2003 - Best Ensemble Cast Performance for Cold Mountain *(shared with the rest of the cast)
2003 - Distinguished Decade in Film
2004 - Best Ensemble Cast Performance for Dogville *(shared with the rest of the cast)
Seattle International Film Festival
1995 - Best Actress for To Die For
ShoWest Convention
1992 - Female Star of Tomorrow
2002 - Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film
In 2003, Kidman received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to those accolades, Kidman has received Best Actress awards from the following critics' groups or award giving organizations: Australian Film Institute, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Empire Awards, Golden Satellite Awards, Hollywood Film Festival, London Critics Circle, Russian Guild of Film Critics, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association. In 2003, Kidman was given the American Cinematheque Award.
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Nominations
Academy Awards:
Best Actress in a Leading Role Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Golden Globe Awards:
Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Birth (2005)
Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Cold Mountain (2004)
Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama The Others (2002)
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Billy Bathgate (1992)
BAFTA:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role The Others (2002)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role To Die For (1996)
Goya Awards:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role The Others (2002)
Screen Actors Guild:
Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role The Hours (2003)
Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture The Hours (2003)
Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Moulin Rouge! (2002)Further Information
Get more info on 'Nicole Kidman'.
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