Nicole Kidman receives Hollywood’s top honour
Nicole Kidman is the first Australian star to be awarded the prestigious Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute.
Grace Kelly, Virginia Woolf, Lucille Ball, Diane Arbus, a nurturing mother, a sociopathic taxidermist, and a murderously ambitious weathergirl – Nicole Kidman has played them all. The Australian star, whose movie career began four decades ago and spans more than 70 films, was honoured by Hollywood on Saturday night at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles where she was awarded the prestigious Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute.
At 56, Kidman is one of the youngest-ever recipients of the award, joining the pantheon of greats such as Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Al Pacino, Orson Welles, and Billy Wilder.
Though she’s one of the biggest, most revered stars of the past half-century, Kidman told reporters on the carpet that she found the honour “a little overwhelming”.
“I want to be able to appreciate it and show that I love it and that I am so grateful, but I’m a little awkward, that’s just my personality, I’m sometimes shy,” she said.
“My instinct is not to accept too many compliments and always downplay, and so I’m trying not to be awkward, and my mum’s always like, just relax, you’re so much better when you just relax. It’s the introvert versus this extroverted life.”
Since her international breakout in Phillip Noyce’s 1989 thriller Dead Calm, Kidman has forged a career defined by heavy-hitting dramas, infusing her performances in The Hours and Rabbit Hole with breathtaking vulnerability. Yet she’s not one to shy away from the unconventional, having taken on daring roles in art house projects like Dogville, Birth, and Eyes Wide Shut. She’s not above crowd-pleasing commercial fare either, as seen in films such as Paddington and Aquaman.
She is, as Stephen Daldry, director of The Hours – which Kidman won an Oscar for with her portrayal of Virginia Woolf – told the New York Times, “an actress that never settles on her laurels”.
Kidman thundered into the 21st century at the height of her powers with Baz Luhrmann’s breathtaking Moulin Rouge! Since then, she’s worked with every director worth their crust, including Jane Campion, Jonathan Glazer, Noah Baumbach, Yorgos Lanthimos, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Lars von Trier, Werner Herzog, and Stanley Kubrick. “So many of the directors I worked with just said stay bold, stay brave, and don’t overthink things,” Kidman told Deadline on the red carpet.
She is also a fashion icon, one who has never played it safe, and has consistently turned out thrilling red carpet looks, making her a perennial fixture on best dressed lists. Like her 1997 Academy Awards dress, a chartreuse gown by John Galliano for Christian Dior, with its Asian-inspired floral embroidery and mink fur-trimmed side slit; or last year’s Met Gala look, which saw her don a custom Chanel Couture gown that Karl Lagerfeld had designed specifically for her to wear in her Chanel No. 5 commercial.
Saturday evening was no different, with Kidman walking the red carpet alongside her daughters Sunday and Faith Urban, husband Keith Urban, and sister, Antonia Kidman, in a luxurious gold Balenciaga gown paired with a dainty Omega watch. ‘Babygirl, I’m so proud of you,’ Urban wrote on X ahead of the 49th AFI Lifetime Achievement Award gala.
Kidman’s Hollywood peers came out in full force to celebrate the star – including Michelle Pfeiffer, Naomi Watts, Morgan Freeman (who starred in a parody of Kidman’s iconic AMC Theatres commercial that played during the ceremony), Lily Rabe, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Mike Myers. Streep, Freeman, Witherspoon and Watts paid tribute to the actress during the ceremony.
Morgan Freeman spoofs Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad at her AFI Life Achievement Tribute pic.twitter.com/YERJHzTcCs
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) April 28, 2024
In her speech, Watts said she considered Kidman “the sister I never had.” The two Australian stars met when they were both 15-year-old striving actresses in Sydney.
Watts said that her friend “has this heart of a lioness”.
“She’s tall, elegant and wicked smart with the most infectious laugh you’ve ever heard. Nic has always been the most generous person,” she said, adding that Kidman has been a great support to her throughout her career.
AFI president Bob Gazzale said Kidman embodied the “glamour and romance of Hollywood past. But she also has the daring and the bravery of one of this art form’s great character actors. She’s a true screen icon, but she’s also a risk-taker. Each performance is something new and something profound”.
Streep, who was honoured with the Life Achievement Award in 2004, presented Kidman with her trophy.
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