The American Film Institute (AFI) presented the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award to Nicole Kidman on April 27, 2024, at a Gala Tribute in Hollywood. AFI will premiere the tribute special titled, The 49th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Nicole Kidman, on TNT on June 17th at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT and on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on June 27th at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. It will also mark the ninth year the Emmy-winning AFI Life Achievement Award special will air on TNT.

Lee Daniels, Ava DuVernay, Zac Efron, Cynthia Erivo, Morgan Freeman, Barry Jenkins, Michelle Pfeiffer, David E. Kelley, Joey King, Mimi Leder, Mike Myers, Edward James Olmos, Jane Seymour, Meryl Streep, Brian Tee, Miles Teller, Lulu Wang, Naomi Watts and more were amoung those who filled the Dolby Theatre to celebrate Kidman’s award-winning career, that includes such awards as an Oscar and an Emmy, as they tributed her indelible mark on the motion picture industry. The tribute event began with welcome remarks from AFI President and CEO, Bob Gazzale, and also featured tributes honoring Nicole Kidman that included speeches from Zoe Saldaña, Aaron Sorkin, Keith Urban, and Reese Witherspoon. Amoung the others the tributes to Kidman included were co-stars and directors who couldn’t be in Hollywood to attend the event and honored Kidman with taped messages from Hugh Jackman, Jane Campion, Jimmy Fallon, Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Baz Luhrmann and Russell Crowe.

Reciepent of the 32nd AFI Life Achievement Award, and presenting the award to Nicole Kidman was her co-star in The Hours, Meryl Streep, who praised Kidman’s formidable talent and stunning range of work. Kidman accepted the award from Streep to a standing ovation, and in her acceptance speech, she said:

“It is a privilege to make films. And glorious to have made films and television with these storytellers who allowed me to run wild and be free and play all of these unconventional women. Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world. Thank you for inviting me into your movie families. Thank you for my childhood dream that became a reality.”

The event concluded with attendees of the tribute recieving an exclusive commorative tribute book about Kidman’s career. Guests were also introduced to the new tribute site chronicling Kidman’s career at AFI.com/NicoleKidman. The event raised over $2 million, and all proceeds from the AFI Life Achievement Award support the American Film Institute as a nonprofit organization, as well as AFI’s non-profit education programs. To donate to AFI, visit AFI.com.

In honor of Nicole Kidman’s AFI Life Achievement Award, Movies to History takes you through her amazing reign in film in this blog posting, as we celebrate her recieving the highest honor for a career in film by the American Film Institute. So come along with me as we tribute the most loved Austrailian American in film.

EARLY LIFE TO 1989…

Nicole Mary Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 20, 1967, while her parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Having been born in Hawaii to Austrailian parents, Kidman holds duel citizenship of Australia and the United States, and has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, Kidman was given the Hawaiian name “Hōkūlani”, meaning “heavenly star”. The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time as Nicole in the Honolulu Zoo. Her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, was a nursing instructor and member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, while also editing her husband’s books; her father Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author. When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C., having moved there shortly after Kidman’s birth.

Kidman said of her parents:

“My mother wanted girls who were ​educated, aware of everything, and opinionated. So did my father. ​They wanted us to be sure of being ​able to speak out.”

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

Three years later, the Kidmans returned to Austrailia where her sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journailst and TV presenter was welcomed into the family. Kidman grew up in Sydney with her sister, where she attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls’ High school. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years. During her teenage years, Kidman attended the Phillip Street Theatre alongside fellow ausie-actress Naomi Watts, and the Austrailian Theatre for Young People, where she studied drama and mime, while finding acting to be a refuge.

It would also be when Kidman’s interest to be an actor was inspired:

“My first love was theater…I remember ​getting up on stage, I remember watching ​those outrageous, fun pantomimes. That was ​probably my first desire to be on stage.”

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, Kidman would end up dropping out of high school to pursue her inspiration to act full-time after encourgement from her theatre community. A 16-year-old Nicole Kidman made her film debut in a 1983 remake of the Austrialian holiday classic Bush Christmas, her debut was successful and she was starring in a supporting role by the end of the year in the television series Five Mile Creek. Kidman would take up massage therapy temporarily after putting her film career on hold in 1984, after her mother was dignosed with breast cancer and wanted to be able to help hre mother with physical therapy. Nicole would eventually return to acting, and gained recognition over the decade during which she appeared in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.

Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City (1988), based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. Kidman told AFI that acting allows her to exist in two different worlds, and her world was about to get much bigger in 1989.

“Acting is a place I get to exist in ​different realms, and I really feel that ​there’s an otherworldly quality to it.”

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

Nicole Kidman would breakthrough the film stratosphere with her role in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, where she starred alongside Sam Niell. Rae was the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a castaway at sea, played by Billy Zane. The film would gain Kidman international recognition as a film actress.

The popular Hollywood trade magazine Variety would say of Kidman in her breakout role:

 “throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy.”¹

– Variety

 – “Dead Calm”. Variety. 1 January 2007.

Kidman’s Hollywood Debut to 1999…

Nicole Kidman made her Hollywood debut in the 1990 sports action film, Days of Thunder, starring alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, who played Cole Trickle. In the film Kidman plays Dr. Claire Lewicki, a young neurosurgeon who develops a relationship with Cole, after treating him after an accident with his race car, her character falls in love with the NASCAR driver, and the film would ber her international breakout film, while also being among the highest-grossing action films of 1990. In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate alongside Dustin Hoffman, earned Nicole Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1992, Kidman and Cruise would re-team for the Ron Howard Irish epic Far and Away, and their team work again would prove to be a modest critical and commerical success. In 1993, Nicole Kidman starred alongside Alec Baldwin and Bill Pullman, in the thriller Malice, as well as the with Michael Keaton in the terminal cancer drama, My Life. Nicole’s star would shine even brighter when in 1995 she reached critical acclaim and worldwide recognition for her film work. Kidman’s worldwide recognition came in the form of comicbook fandom globally for the 1995 DC Comic superhero based character film, Batman Forever, when she played Dr. Chase Meridian, a psychologist and love interest of Bruce Wayne, played by Val Kilmer, and eventually becomes Batman’s damsel in distress. Chase is fascinated by the dual nature of his Batman, her insight into Batman’s nature throughout the film drives Bruce to question his decision to become Batman. But it would be her own decision to also release another film in 1995 that would earn Kidman her first critically acclaimed role.

That year Kidman also starred in To Die For, the critically acclaimed dark comedy film from director Gus Van Sant, in which Nicole Kidman played the muderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. The film script was based on Joyce Maynard‘s novel of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the story of Pamela Smart. Kidman was nominated for a BAFTA, and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture or Musical for her performance. Her character has been described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder in the scientific journal BMC Psychiatry.

Some of the critical acclaim Kidman recieved came from both critics and her director:

“[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same.”²

– Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle 

– “Film Review– Kidman Monstrously Good in ‘To Die For'”  San Francisco Chronicle

“She worked harder than I’ve ever seen anybody work. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for the part…I had never seen anything like it.” 

– Gus Van Sant, Director To Die For

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

The following years after her critical acclaim and worldwide recognition saw her appearing alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in 1996 with The Portrait of a Lady, based on the novel of the same name by Henry James, where her director Jane Campion remembers seeing her acting evolving:

“I saw her becoming very intuitive ​with her work, willing to go places I hadn’t imagined before.”

– Jane Campion, Director of THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

Then in 1997, Kidman starred alongside George Clooney in DreamWorks Pictures first film, the political action thriller, The Peacemaker, where Kidman played, Dr. Julia Kelly, head of the NSC Nuclear Smuggling Group in the film about the state of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. In 1998, she starred alongside Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Practical Magic as Gillian Owens, one of two witch sisters, the other sister, Sally Owens, was played by Bullock, who face a threatening curse that prevents them from finding lasting love. While the film opened at the top of the charts during its North American opening weekend, it was a commercial failure at the box-office, but the film would make Kidman a cultural icon and find success as a cult classic hit. Nicole Kidman brings a little magic around every Holloween season, to remind us of the burden of falling in love with a witch. Kidman would also return to the theatre stage in 1998, for the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.

In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, it would be their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes, Kidman said of making films that push her limits:

“I try never to be governed ​by fear; that’s how I choose ​things. If I ever feel that this ​is dangerous or I’m scared of ​it, then that probably draws ​me more towards it.” 

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

Eyes Wide Shut would also turn out to be the final film teaming of Cruise and Kidman, as the film would become synonymous with the end of their marriage in 2001.

A Brief Hiatus, with a few Oscar Nominations to 2009…

After a brief hiatus to adapt to her change in life, and to settle out of her highly publicized divorce from Cruise, Nicole Kidman returned to the big screen in 2001 as a Legend of Hollywood, her first role back was playing a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl, but it was the second role she starred in that year which would officially welcome her back to film as a Legend. Kidman took the role of caberet actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann‘s musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance, AND her singing received positive reviews from critics who argued it was her best work since To Die For. She subsequently recived her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picrture or Musical, and among several other awards and nominations, Kidman would recieve her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role of Satine.

This would also mark the time in her career where Kidman was beginning to evolve as an artist in the moving arts industry, her director in Moulin Rouge! said of Nicole’s evolution in film:

“She’s not only acting in more ​challenging roles consistently but she’s ​also producing and creating, and I think she’s someone to be admired.”

– Baz Luhrmann, Director of MOULIN ROUGE!

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

2001 was a busy year of return for Kidman, she also starred in  Alejandro Amenábar‘s psychological horror film The Others, as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over $210 million worldwide, her performance earned her several award nominations, including a Goya Award nomination for Best Actress, in addition to receiving her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations.

And famed film critic Roger Ebert, and the director of the film would say of her role in the film:

“Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric.”³

– Roger Ebert

“The Others (2001)”. RogerEbert.com

“She’s a great actress, and the character really became stronger and richer with her performance.” 

– Alejandro Amenábar, Director of THE OTHERS

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

The following year, Nicole garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virgina Woolf in Stephen Daldry‘s The Hours, co-starring with Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman was almost unrecognizable in the role, wearing prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, to portray the author during 1920s England. Not only was the film a critical success, it was an award season winner earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Kidman swept most of the awards season winning numerous critic and industry awards for her performance as Woolf, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the finally the Academy Award, or Oscar as its better known, for Best Actress, and became the first Australian to win the award.

During her Oscar’s acceptance speech, Nicole Kidman referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying:

“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 honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld.” ⁴

– Nicole Kidman

“Memorable Moments From Oscar Night”. ABC News.

This year was also the year People Magazine thought she looked great killing it in her film career and named her number one out of 50 Most Beautiful People for 2002.

Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three distinctly different films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier‘s Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman earned praise for her performance. 

“She has an insatiable appetite to ​explore new worlds and characters and ​her range is quite extraordinary.” 

– Lauren Bacall, Co-star in DOGVILLE

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth‘s novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella‘s war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law’s character and become separated by the American Civil War. The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.

Kidman was considered an established actress when he starred in the 2004 drama film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, she addressed the controversy saying:

“It wasn’t that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love”.⁵

– Nicole Kidman

“Bacall delivers a legendary snub to Kidman”. The Daily Telegraph

For her performance, Kidman received her seventh Golden Globe nomination.

That same year, Kidman starred alongside Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. The following year, in 2005, Nicole starred opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and starred alongside Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, Kidman and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.

In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US $384 million worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film at the time. The following year, she starred opposite Daniel Craig in the science-fiction film The Invasion, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, Kidman then starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach‘s comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. Also in 2007, Kidman starred as the main antagonist Marisa Coulter in the fantasy-adventure film The Golden Compass, which grossed over US $370 million worldwide, also becoming one of her highest-grossing films to date.

“Nicole gives everything to her performance, and you can’t ask for more as a director…She can provide something different and unique in every take.” 

– Noah Baumbach, Director of MARGOT AT THE WEDDING

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

In 2008, Kidman reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Starring opposite Hugh Jackman, she played Lady Sarah Ashely, an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it turned out to be a box office success, grossing over $211 million worldwide against a budget of $130 million. 

“As actor/director, we’ve come to another place where we really push each other to another level.” 

– Baz Luhrmann, Director of AUSTRALIA

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

In 2009, she appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the muse Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number “Unusual Way” alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.

Began Producing in 2010 to Present…

Her career in film would reach new heights in 2010, when Kidman began not just acting in films, but producing them. The first film produced by Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films was the film adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart. Her performance as a grieving mother coping with the death of her son earned her critical acclaim, and she received another nomination for the Academy Award, as well as a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. The following year, she appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan‘s romantic comedy Just Go with It, as Devlin Adams alongside Dave Matthews, and subsequently starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher‘s action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage.

In 2012, Kidman starred alongside Clive Owen in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between journalist couple Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. For her performance as Gellhorn, Kidman received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. That same year, she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless in Lee Daniels‘ adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy. The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and Kidman’s performance garnered her nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. In 2013, Kidman starred as Evelyn Stoker in Park Chan-wook‘s Stoker, which was released to positive reception and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2014, Kidman starred as Grace Kelly in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco’s status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly’s contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Marnie. Kidman also starred in two films with Colin Firth, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man in 2013, in which she played Patricia Lomax. Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying Christine Lucas, a car crash survivor with brain damage in 2014. Also in that year, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film’s main antagonist.

In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman’s production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played district attorney Claire Sloan, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the film Secret in Their Eyes. After more than 15 years, she returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from September 5 to November 21, 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.

“Every night to be doing what I did when I was a child…to be doing it again. It just felt so satisfying to be performing in front of an audience.”

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

In 2016‘s Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. 

In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty‘s novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show’s director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics’ Choice Television Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her work in the show.

“It’s the biggest success I’ve ever had with another woman, in my entire career, and hers. For me, to have that experience with her, to be in the trenches with her, it’s been everything.” 

– Reese Witherspoon, Actress and Executive Producer of BIG LITTLE LIES

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola‘s drama The Beguiled, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d’Or. The film was an adaptation of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and co-star Elle Fanning, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, reuniting her with co-star Colin Farrell, and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d’Or. Also in 2017, she played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.

In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramas—Destroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played LAPD Detective Erin Bell, a detective troubled by a case for two decades. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley‘s Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. That same year, Kidman took on the role of Queen Atlanna, the mother of Arthur Curry (Aquaman), in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman, which grossed over US $1.1 billion worldwide, becoming Kidman’s highest-grossing film to date. 

“When you look at her career, it’s hard to deny the daring that she brings to her work.”

–Karyn Kusama, Director of DESTROYER

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

In 2019, Kidman next played the supporting part of rich socialite Mrs. Barbour in John Crowley‘s drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. That same year Kidman co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. For her performance, she received an additional Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 2020, Kidman starred as Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, alongside Hugh Grant. She also served as executive producer alongside the show’s director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. The series gained increasing momentum and broke records, becoming the HBO‘s first original series to grow its viewership consistently week by week. The finale marked the most-watched night on HBO since the season 2 finale of Big Little Lies. Furthermore, the series surpassed Big Little Lies to become HBO’s most-watched show of 2020 based on audience numbers. For her performance, she received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Her only film release of 2020 due to the COVID Pandemic, was the musical comedy The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, and James Corden.

In August 2021, Nicole Kidman starred and served as executive producer on the Hulu drama series Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the premiere of the show became the most-watched Hulu original on its premiere day and continued to hold that title after five days on the service. That same year, she portrayed actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball’s husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth nomination overall.

In September 2021, Kidman starred in a commercial for AMC Theatres entitled “We Make Movies Better“, which would play before every film in the theatres owned by the chain beginning that month and Kidman’s sponsorship was later extended for another year in August 2022. The commercial and Kidman’s delivery of her speech proved popular with audiences who viewed it as a way to drive moviegoers back to seeing films theatrically in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2022, Kidman appeared in an episode of the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern‘s 2018 short story collection, in addition to serving as executive producer. That same month, she starred alongside her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ethan Hawke in the historical drama The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. The film was received with widespread acclaim upon its release.

In July 2023, Kidman joined the cast of the Paramount+ television series Special Ops: Lioness, on which she was already serving as an executive producer. In December 2023, Kidman reprised the role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

In January 2024, Kidman starred in and served as executive producer of the drama television series Expats. Kidman is also set to voice Queen Ellsmere in the animated fantasy film Spellbound in 2024. She will also be seen with Zac Efron and Joey King in Netflix‘s A Family Affair on June 28, 2024. 

Upcoming Projects…

Kidman is set to star in, and serve as executive producer on, numerous projects: the Netflix series The Perfect Couple, based on Elin Hilderbrand‘s novel; the Australian television series The Last Anniversary, adapted from Liane Moriarty‘s novel; an Amazon Prime Video Kay Scarpetta series based on Patricia Cornwell‘s Kay Scarpetta novels; an HBO series The Perfect Nanny adapted from the Leïla Slimani novel of the same name; and the Apple TV+ series Margo’s Got Money Troubles.

Kidman is considered to be one of the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking eccentric roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her volatile performances and versatile work, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever.

In addition to Nicole Kidman’s work as a producer and actress, she has served as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for nearly two decades and was awarded Australia’s highest honor, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in 2006. Along with her husband, Keith Urban, she has helped raise millions over the years for the Stanford Women’s Cancer Program, a world-renowned center for research into the causes, treatment, prevention and eventual cure of women’s cancer.

“If the heart and purity and desire is there, that will sustain you a lifetime. You’ve got to nourish it, you’ve got to protect it.”

– Nicole Kidman

AFI.com/NicoleKidman

1.  “Dead Calm”. Variety. 1 January 2007. Retrieved 01 May 2024. ↩︎
2.  LaSalle, Mike (6 October 1995). “Film Review– Kidman Monstrously Good in ‘To Die For'”. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 01 May 2024. ↩︎
3.  Ebert, Roger (10 August 2001). “The Others (2001)”. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 01 May 2024. ↩︎
4.  “Memorable Moments From Oscar Night”. ABC News. 23 March 2003. Retrieved 01 May 2024. ↩︎
5.  Born, Matt (9 September 2004). “Bacall delivers a legendary snub to Kidman”. The Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 01 May 2024. Retrieved 01 May 2024. ↩︎