| BIOGRAPHY
An actress who was relegated to playing decorative parts for
years and was known primarily for her real-life role as the wife
of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman spent the latter half of the 1990s
finally earning the critical respect she deserved. Standing a
willowy 5'11" and sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive
heads of red hair, the Australian actress first came to the attention
of a wide American audience with her role opposite Cruise in Days
of Thunder (1990), but it was not until she starred as a homicidal
weather girl in Gus Van Sant's 1995 To Die For that she began
to be regarded as a performer of considerable range and talent.
Although many assume that Kidman is a native of Australia, she
was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967. Her family,
who lived on the island because of a research project Kidman's
father, a biochemist, was involved with, subsequently moved to
Washington, D.C. for the next three years. After her father's
project reached completion, Kidman and her family -- which also
included her mother, a nurse/educator, and a younger sister --
moved to her parents' native Australia. Raised in the upper-middle-class
Sydney suburb of Longueville, she grew up with a love of the arts,
particularly dance and theatre. Trained in ballet from the age
of three, Kidman made her acting debut in a nativity play when
she was six. By the age of ten, she was studying acting in drama
school, and she went on to train at the St. Martin's Youth Theatre
in Melbourne and at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre.
An awkward, gawky teenager who was teased relentlessly because
of her height, Kidman took refuge in the theatre, and she landed
her first professional role at the age of 14, when she starred
in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a group of kids who
band together with an Aborigine to find their stolen horse. This
was followed by a role in another adventure film, BMX Bandits
(1983), and a number of TV movies. Kidman's first breakthrough
came when she was asked to star in Vietnam, a miniseries directed
by John Duigan; the actress won positive notices for her portrayal
of an awkward 1960s schoolgirl who matures into an idealistic
24-year-old Vietnam war protester. She also won an American agent,
something that opened quite a few doors of opportunity.
In 1989, Kidman got another major break when she was tapped to
star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm. A psychological thriller about
a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are terrorized by a young
man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy Zane), the film helped
to establish the then-19-year-old Kidman as an actress of considerable
mettle. That same year her reputation was further boosted by her
starring performance in the made-for-TV Bangkok Hilton, which
cast her as a young woman incarcerated in a Thai prison on false
drug smuggling charges.
By now a rising star in Australia, Kidman began earning recognition
across the Pacific. In 1989, she was picked by Tom Cruise for
a starring role in her first American feature, Tony Scott's Days
of Thunder (1990). The film, a testosterone-saturated drama about
a racecar driver (Cruise), cast Kidman as the neurologist who
falls in love with him. A sizable hit, it had the added advantage
of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she married in December
of 1990.
Following a role as Dustin Hoffman's moll in Billy Bathgate (1991),
and a supporting turn as a snotty boarding school senior in Flirting
(also 1991), John Duigan's wonderful and criminally little-seen
coming-of-age drama, Kidman collaborated with Cruise on their
second film together, Far and Away (1992). Despite their onscreen
pairing and some gorgeous cinematography, the film got only a
lukewarm reception, and Kidman's subsequent projects, My Life
and Malice ( both 1993), were similarly disappointing. Batman
Forever (1995), in which she played the hero's love interest,
fared somewhat better, but it did little in the way of establishing
Kidman as a serious actress.
Kidman finally broke out of her window-dressing typecasting when
Gus Van Sant cast her as the ruthless protagonist of To Die For
in 1995. Displaying a gift for very black comic timing, she earned
numerous awards and the respect of a number of critics who had
previously viewed her merely as the sum of her physical parts.
Further critical praise greeted Kidman's performance as Isabel
Archer in Jane Campion's 1996 adaptation of Henry James' The Portrait
of a Lady. Now regarded as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood
-- as well as one half of its most high-profile couple -- Kidman
starred opposite George Clooney in the big-budget action extravaganza
The Peacemaker (1997) and opposite Sandra Bullock in the frothy
Practical Magic (1998). Both films weren't remotely as interesting
or successful as Kidman's concurrent return to the stage in London's
Donmar Warehouse production of The Blue Room. Cast as several
characters, one of which required her to play a scene in the nude,
Kidman inspired a sensation among both audiences and critics,
the latter of whom were moved to write numerous lines of sweaty
praise for the actress' full-bodied flirtation with nudity. The
play enjoyed a sold-out run in both London and New York, and Kidman
earned an Evening Standard Award and Olivier nomination for her
performance.
In 1999, Kidman starred in her most talked-about film to date,
Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The film, which was cloaked
in secrecy from the beginning of its production, also starred
Cruise as Kidman's physician husband, and the couple's onscreen
pairing was hyped as one of the project's major selling points.
However, despite gaining an added measure of intrigue from Kubrick's
death after shooting had ended, Eyes Wide Shut opened to a radically
mixed reaction; for her part, Kidman came away with some of the
film's best reviews for her portrayal of a bored, sexually adventurous
Manhattan housewife. The following year, she kept busy with a
number of projects: included amongst them were Jez Butterworth's
Birthday Girl, in which she played a Russian mail order bride,
and Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, which cast her as a courtesan
in 19th century Paris. Following the success of Moulin Rouge,
Kidman gained even more positive notice for her turn as an icy
mother seeking the key to a dark mystery in Alejandro Amenabar's
spooky throwback, The Others.
By the time of the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards were set to
take place, Kidman found herself nominated for her memorable performances
in both films. Though her emotionally fragile performance in The
Others lost out to Sissy Spacek's performace in Todd Field's In
the Bedroom, Kidman's upbeat performance in the lively Moulin
Rouge found versatile actress taking home a Golden Globe for Best
Actress in a Musical or Comedy in addition to earning her an Oscar
nomination for Best Actress. Though it couldn't have been any
further from her flamboyant turn in Moulin Rouge, Kidman's virtually
unrecognizable role as Virginia Woolf in the following year's
The Hours kept the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations steadily
flowing in for the acclaimed actress. WIth her 2003 Golden Globe
win serving as a foreshadowing of things to come for the 75th
annual Academy Awards, fans cheered as the fair haired beauty
snagged the Best Actress Oscar that had been so elusive the year
before. |
FILMOGRAPHY
• Bewitched (2005)
• Birth (2004)
• Dogville (2004)
• The Stepford Wives (2004)
• Cold Mountain (2003)
• The Human Stain (2003)
• Birthday Girl (2002)
• The Hours (2002)
• Moulin Rouge (2001)
• The Others (2001)
• Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
• Practical Magic (1998)
• The Peacemaker (1997)
• The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
• Batman Forever (1995)
• To Die For (1995)
• Malice (1993)
• My Life (1993)
• Far and Away (1992)
• Billy Bathgate (1991)
• Flirting (1991)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Dead Calm (1989)
• Dead Calm (1988)
• Nightmaster (1988)
• Windrider (1986)
• BMX Bandits (1983)
• Prince and the Great Race (1983) |
