Biography: Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer and film producer.[2] Kidman's breakthrough film role was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films in the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). She followed these with other successful films in the late 1990s. Her performance in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) earned her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Others (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005) and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades, including a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2012, she earned her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her role in Hemingway & Gellhorn. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994[3] and for UNIFEM since 2006.[4] In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia,[5] and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry.[6] As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.[7] Kidman founded and owns the production company Blossom Films.
1983–1994
In 1983, aged 16, Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday season favourite Bush Christmas.[16] By the end of 1983, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek and began gaining popularity in the mid-1980s after appearing in several film roles, including BMX Bandits, Watch the Shadows Dance, and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986), which earned Kidman attention due to her racy scenes. Also during the decade, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the soap opera A Country Practice[17] and the miniseries Vietnam (1986).[18] She also made guest appearances on Australian television programs and TV movies. She also appeared in Sesame Street.
In 1988, Kidman appeared in Emerald City, based on the play of the same name. The Australian film earned her an Australian Film Institute for Best Supporting Actress. Kidman next starred in Dead Calm (1989) as Rae Ingram, playing the wife of a naval officer. The thriller garnered strong reviews and brought Kidman to international recognition; Variety commented: "Throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy."[19] Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together."[20] She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton. She next moved on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 auto racing film Days of Thunder, playing a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. This was Kidman's American debut and was among the highest-grossing films of the year.[21]
In 1991, she co-starred with former classmate and friend Naomi Watts and Thandie Newton in the Australian independent film Flirting. Kidman and Watts portrayed two high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film.[22] That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor".[23] The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical[24][25] and commercial[26] success. In 1993, she starred in My Life opposite Michael Keaton[27] and the thriller, Malice opposite Alec Baldwin.[28]
1995–2003
In 1995, Kidman appeared in her highest-grossing live-action film (as of 2011),[29] playing Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. That same year Kidman appeared in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed To Die For, earning praise, including winning her first Golden Globe for her portrayal of murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto.[30][31] Kidman next appeared in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel the same name, alongside, Barbara Hershey, John Malkovich and Mary-Louise Parker. The following year she appeared in the action-thriller The Peacemaker (1997) as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The film received mixed reviews but grossed some $110,000,000 worldwide.[32][33] That same year she appeared opposite Sandra Bullock in the poorly received fantasy Practical Magic as a modern-day witch.[34] Kidman returned to her work on stage the same year in the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London.[35]





In 1999, Kidman reunited with then husband, Tom Cruise, to portray a married couple in Eyes Wide Shut, the final film of Stanley Kubrick. The film opened to generally positive reviews but was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes.[36] The film received further attention following Kubrick's death shortly before its release. After brief hiatus and a highly publicized divorce from Cruise,[37] Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl.[38] In 2001, Kidman appeared in two of her most critically and commercially successful films. In the first she played the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Subsequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe Award, for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, as well as other acting awards. She also received her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Actress. Also in 2001, she had a well-received starring role in Alejandro Amenábar's Spanish horror film The Others as Grace Stewart. Grossing over $210,947,037 worldwide, the film also earned several Goya Awards award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Kidman. Additionally she received her second BAFTA and fifth Golden Globe nominations.[39]
In 2003, Kidman won critical praise for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, which also featured Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman wore prosthetics that were applied to her nose making her almost unrecognisable playing the author during her time in 1920s England, and her bouts with depression and mental illness while trying to write her novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The film earned positive notices and several nominations, including for an Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that, "Kidman tunnels like a ferret into the soul of a woman besieged by excruciating bouts of mental illness. As you watch her wrestle with the demon of depression, it is as if its torment has never been shown on the screen before. Directing her desperate, furious stare into the void, her eyes not really focusing, Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain".[40]
Kidman won numerous critics' awards, including her first BAFTA, third Golden Globe, and the Academy Award for Best Actress. As the first Australian actress to win an Academy Award, Kidman made a teary acceptance speech about the importance of art, even during times of war, 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."[41] Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three very different films in 2003. The first, a leading role in Dogville, by Danish director Lars von Trier, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. The second was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film, Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, was a critical and commercial success. Kidman appeared opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, who is in love with Law's character and separated by the Civil War. TIME magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight".[42] The film garnered several award nominations and wins for its actors; Kidman received her sixth Golden Globe nomination at the 61st Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress.[43]
2004–2009





In 2004 she appeared in the film, Birth, which received controversy over a scene in which Kidman shares a bath with her co-star, 10-year-old Cameron Bright. At a press conference at the Venice Film Festival, Kidman 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".[44] Though the film received negative to mixed reviews, Kidman earned her seventh Golden Globe nomination, for Best Actress – Motion Picture. That same year she appeared in the black comedy-science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name. Kidman appeared in the lead role as Joanna Eberhart, a successful producer. The film, directed by Frank Oz, was critically panned and a commercial failure. The following year, Kidman appeared opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome. Also that year she starred in Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name, opposite Will Ferrell. Both Kidman and Ferrell earned that year's Razzie Award for "Worst Screen Couple". Neither film fared well in the United States, with box office sales falling well short of the production costs, but both films fared well internationally.[45][46]
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 seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12million for the three-minute advert.[47] 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 US$16–17 million per-film price tag.[48] Nintendo in 2007 announced that Kidman would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market.[49]
Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biography Fur (2006), opposite Robert Downey, Jr.. Though the film was released to mixed reviews, both Kidman and Downey Jr. received praise for their performances. She also lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet (2006), which grossed over US$384 million worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science-fiction movie The Invasion directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers that proved a critical and commercial failure. She also played opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, released to positive reviews and earning Kidman a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. She then starred in the commercially successful fantasy-adventure, The Golden Compass (2007), playing the villainous Marisa Coulter.
In 2008, she reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann in the Australian period film Australia, set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Kidman played opposite Hugh Jackman as an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. Despite the film's mixed reviews, the acting was praised and the movie was a box office success worldwide.[50] Kidman was originally set to star in the post-World War II German drama, The Reader, working with previous collaborators Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, but due to her pregnancy prior to filming she had to back out.[51] The role went to Kate Winslet, who ultimately won the Oscar for Best Actress, which Kidman presented to her during the 81st Academy Awards.[52] Kidman appeared in the 2009 Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the Federico Fellini-like character's muse, Claudia Jenssen. She was featured alongside fellow Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz and Sophia Loren. Kidman's, whose screen time was brief compared to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. Although the film was released to mixed reviews, it received several Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, and earned Kidman a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Cast.
2010–present



In 2010, she starred with Aaron Eckhart in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, for which she vacated her role in the Woody Allen picture You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.[53] She lent her voice to a promotional video that Australia used to support its bid to host the 2018 World Cup.[54] TV Guide reported in 2008 that Kidman will star in The Danish Girl, a film adaptation of the novel of the same name, playing Lili Elbe, the world's first postoperative transsexual.[55] Screen Daily reported that shooting would begin in Germany in July 2011.[56] However the project has been delayed following the exit of the director, Lasse Hallström and Kidman's co-star Rachel Weisz.[57] In 2009, Variety said that she would produce and star in a film adaptation of the Chris Cleave novel Little Bee, in association with BBC Films.[58]
In June 2010, TV Guide announced that Kidman and Clive Owen will star in an HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn. entitled Hemingway & Gellhorn. The film, directed by Philip Kaufman,[59] began shooting in March 2011, with an air date scheduled for 2012.[60] She also starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage.[61] On 17 September 2010, ContactMusic. com said Kidman would return to Broadway to portray Alexandra Del Lago in David Cromer's revival of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth, with Scott Rudin producing.[62] On 30 August 2011, Cromer spoke to The New York Times and explained that the production would not meet its original fall 2011 revival date but that it remains an active project.[63]
In June 2011, Kidman was cast in Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy;[64] she began filming on the thriller on 1 August 2011, and The Paperboy was released in 2012. In the film, she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless, and performed sex scenes that she claims not to have remembered until seeing the finished film. "I was like okay, so that's what I did," she said.[65] Kidman co-starred in Park Chan-wook's Stoker (2013).[66] In April 2012, various sources, including Variety, announced that Kidman was in talks to star in upcoming Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco. The film will focus on 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.[67] In 2012, Kidman's audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released at Audible.com.[68] In April 2013 she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[69]
Singing
Her collaboration with Ewan McGregor on "Come What May" peaked at No.27 in the UK Singles Chart.[70] Later she collaborated with Robbie Williams on "Somethin' Stupid", a cover version for Williams' swing covers album Swing When You're Winning. It peaked at No.8 in the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at No.1 for three weeks in the UK.[71] In 2006, while voicing a role in the animated movie Happy Feet, she provided vocals for Norma Jean's "heartsong", a slightly altered version of "Kiss" by Prince.[72] Kidman sang in Rob Marshall's movie musical Nine.[73]

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