By Cameron Bayley
This weekend, Nicole Kidman will join the ranks of Hollywood heavyweights Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Alfred Hitchcock and others in receiving one of the highest honours possible for a career in film: the Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.
The award acknowledges an artist who has fundamentally advanced film and whose work stands the test of time. Kidman is the first Australian to ever receive it and noted this week that it’s a long way from her debut in Bush Christmas in 1983.
Nicole Kidman is receiving a life achievement award from the American Film Institute.Credit: Artwork by Bethany Rae
I remember where I was when I started taking notice. It was the very tail end of 1990, I was on summer holidays with my family in country Victoria, flicking through the newspaper (it was pre-internet) and there it was. Nicole Kidman had married Tom Cruise.
It was a moment. Who does that? Who snags the biggest movie star in the world? It was clear: she had something.
She caught Cruise’s attention with Aussie flick Dead Calm, and he took her to the next level, casting her opposite him in the macho-tastic Days of Thunder – where she famously berates him, big hair flying, that “control is an illusion, you infantile egomaniac” and both an iconic line, and true love, was born.
From that bombastic Hollywood debut, she’s forged an incomparable career.
I’ve been there, as a fan, every step of the way, fascinated by her combination of title-case Movie Star Appeal and her fierce acting prowess, her ability to get under the skin of characters and have them pierce their way into you off the screen.
She’s wooed me with the left-of-centre choices she consistently makes. Take Anna from Birth, convinced a child is the reincarnation of her dead spouse. The sublime two-and-a-half minute wordless close-up filmed by director Jonathan Glazer alone is a masterclass in the brittleness and brokenness Kidman can convey, still keeping so much tempered under the surface.
But before the term “ice queen” gets thrown about (don’t worry, I’ve heard it all), there are other roles which call on her particular tenderness, such as her Oscar-nominated turn as real-life mum Sue Brierley in the Australian film Lion, stoic but distraught, grappling with the heart-rending possibility of losing her adopted son played by Dev Patel.
And for the sheer showgirl side of Kidman, there’s one film that shouldn’t be missed. And, no, I’m not talking Moulin Rouge! but The Paperboy, where she flings herself into the role of blowsy belle Charlotte Bless, caught in a grimy, sweaty, incredibly problematic relationship with convicted killer Hillary (John Cusack). She’s brazen, almost scarily so, but can flip this on its head, a character as changeable as the teased-out peroxide-blonde wig Bless favours.
Kidman with Sam Neill in Dead Calm.
She’s drawn to this incredible range of do-you-dare sort of roles, expert at channelling women standing on the precipice of their very own personal apocalypse, storm breaking.“I’ve been in probably some of the most divisive films there have been,” she once told Deadline. “I’m so glad to be in those films… The idea of not having limitations or boundaries is important to me.”
But it’s not just this that spurs my fandom. I won’t lie that her somewhat intriguing private life adds to her public appeal. We’ll never really know what it was like to be married to Scientology-mad Cruise for a decade, and to then be somewhat estranged from the two children they share. Or to exhaust herself working for auteur Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut, or being the mate and muse of Baz Luhrmann on two occasions.
And she feeds into this, being savvy enough to drop enough tidbits in interviews to offer a glimpse into her world – but still keeping you just out of reach.
She’s also a red carpet legend (her 1997 Oscars dress pretty much invented couture celebrity dressing). Don’t come at me with your “But what has she done to her face?” claims, because that’s (A) so early ’00s, (B) none of our business and (C) incorrectly placing blame for trying to survive as a woman actor past 30.
And I’m not so blinkered that I find every project golden, there have been some very wrong turns. Bewitched was bad, Queen of the Desert is a challenge to sit through, and let’s never speak of Grace of Monaco again. Her projects are not box-office guarantees either. (Put your hand up if you’ve seen How to Talk to Girls at Parties. Thought not.)
However, Kidman’s desire to constantly push herself in roles that many others wouldn’t touch, and to consistently work with exciting directors keeps her oeuvre something to marvel at. “If I can respect somebody, I’ll walk to the ends of the earth,” she’s said of those she chooses to work with, a veritable cinephile’s dream. To wit: Minghella, Sorkin, Campion, Herzog, Chan-wook, von Trier, Coppola, Lanthimos, Baumbach, Pollack, Glazer.
She’s bigger than her performances, though. She has been a UN ambassador since way before it became celebrity currency, and a generous philanthropist. She’s a prolific television producer, and an advocate for female talent, making a clear vow to work with women directors every 18 months, supporting those just breaking through like Australian Kim Farrant (Strangerland) and Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Mimi Cave (the upcoming Holland, Michigan).
So I will continue to follow her wherever she goes, because any role she touches has that something (well, almost – the Adam Sandler comedy Just Go with It almost broke the relationship).
“Art is important,” she proclaimed when winning her Oscar for The Hours (one win, five nominations thus far) and you can see that in her vast back catalogue. It’s this, the art of it all, that she champions. And it’s for this she fully deserves this AFI accolade. And your attention.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.