Moulin Rouge stars reunite to share secrets from the film

NICOLE Kidman doing shots of absinthe and dancing on tables? Making the Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge sounds like it was even more fun than watching the film.

SIXTEEN years after they appeared as doomed lovers Christian and Satine in the Baz Luhrmann musical Moulin Rouge, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman have reunited to share their memories of making the much-loved film.

And while the Parisian jukebox musical is a whole lot of fun to watch, it sounds like there was even more enjoyment going on behind the scenes

The pair chat all things Moulin Rouge as part of a wider career-spanning chat for Variety— and as Kidman explains, she was nervous about making her first musical from the outset.

Kidman was nervous about her singing abilities — but ended up scoring hit singles from the film.

She and McGregor started work on Moulin Rouge with a two-week workshop, six months before shooting began, so they could test out their song and dance skills.

“What about that? I remember being in a dance studio with you and having to do all those different dances — salsa, tango ... and we didn’t end up doing any of them [in the film],” she laughed.

“And then the singing! I just remember you having this exquisite voice and me thinking, ‘I am never going to be able to hit these notes’. I was like ‘Come on, practice Nicole,’ and you’d come in and you were SO much better than me.”

Set in 1900-era Paris in the height of the city’s Bohemian movement, the characters in Moulin Rouge existed in a colourful blur of absinthe-fuelled debauchery.

Spending much of their downtime in Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin’s expansive Sydney mansion while they shot the film at Fox Studios over 1999 and 2000, the two leads indulged in a little method acting.

Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin’s former Darlinghurst home, ‘Iona’, also served as the HQ for their film making company.

“We’d have great parties! Remember those Friday nights?” asked Kidman.

“Not all of them. Don’t remember all of them,” quipped McGregor.

“We had some pretty wild nights. I remember Absinthe being passed out at one point, and me going ‘Is this safe?’ I was so naive,” said Kidman.

“Then going ‘I suppose it is!’ Dancing on the tables ...”

Filming a song and dance spectacular is no mean feat when you’re nursing an Absinthe hangover.

The collaborative atmosphere meant that, 17 long years after they shot Moulin Rouge, the pair hold especially fond memories of the film.

“All those workshops we did — we’d work on a scene, then a week later the work we’d have done would be incorporated into the writing. That almost never happens,” said McGregor.

“When you work together like that, what you created is yours forever. It bonds you together in a very particular way,” said Kidman.

“We gave about a year of our lives to that film, but hey, I’m so glad.”