The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Nicole Kidman beats industry bias to keep winning

Nicole Kidman, who has thrived for four decades in fickle tinseltown, has been nominated for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

Few Australian actors are as ­globally renowned as Nicole Kidman, whose silver screen career has survived four decades in the notoriously fickle world of tinseltown.

Now the screen siren is nominated for her sixth Golden Globe, due to be announced on Monday, for her turn as Lucille Ball, the star of 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy, in Being the Ricardos.

Kidman’s trophy case is ­already heaving. She has an Oscar and a British Academy Film Award for best actress for playing writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild award and two prime-time Emmys.

Kidman’s previous Golden Globe wins are for Baz Lurhmann’s Moulin Rouge in 2002, The Hours in 2003, the 1996 dark comedy To Die For and drama series Big Little Lies, for which she won gongs for best actress and best television motion picture in 2018.

The 54-year-old may have been born in Hawaii but her achievements in film and, more recently, on streaming platform series has earnt her a place in the hearts and minds of Australians.

For her hard work and excellence, The Australian’s readers have nominated Kidman for The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

Industry types say Kidman is reaching new heights in her career amid a midlife renaissance.

She said in a recent interview that there was widespread consensus in the film industry that once an actress hit 40, they were past their use-by-date.

“I never sat in a chair and heard someone say, ‘You’re past your due date’, but I’ve had times where you’re turned down and the door is shut on you,” she told DuJour.

“It’s definitely changing and moving, but that’s what Being the Ricardos is about.”

The actress confessed suffering anxiety about taking the role of Ball that was compounded by online criticism that questioned her ability to play Ball, a comedy icon.

She revealed in a recent interview with DuJour that she started smoking to imitate the voice of the chainsmoking Ball and worked with a voice actor.

“If I warm up for a minute, I now can do her voice standing on my head,” she said.

Kidman splits her time between Nashville and Australia with second husband Keith Urban and her children. She’s come a long way since she split with Tom Cruise in 2001, about a year after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s psychosexual drama Eyes Wide Shut.

Kidman recently told industry magazine Variety that taking risks with her choice of films was really important to her.

“I really want to stay in a place of putting myself into discomfort – not feeling like, ‘I’ve done this. I’m very safe. I know how to do this’,” she said.

The actor has recently been in celebrity mecca Byron Bay filming series Nine Perfect Strangers with production company Blossom films, an outfit she co-founded with film and television producer Per Saari.

We encourage our readers to put in a nomination for The Australian’s Australian of the Year, which was first won in 1971 by economist HC “Nugget” Coombs. Prominent Australians can be nominated by filling out the form above, or sending an email to [e-mail]. Nominations close on Friday, January 21.