‘Big Little Lies’ Star Nicole Kidman Begged For Breakout Role And Hopes For More Kids
Nicole Kidman is a household name now, but that wasn’t always the case. As Ms. Kidman makes the rounds to promote her latest project, Big Little Lies, the Hollywood A-lister looks back on her early days and having to swallow her pride just to get a starring role. Nicole opens up about one of the films that really put her name in lights and what it took to get cast in that early ’90s film, To Die For. Of course, Kidman has her pick of projects these days and the mere mention of her name on a comedy series, like Little Big Lies, piques the interest of fans worldwide, but that wasn’t always the case.
Nicole Kidman Looks Back On The One Role That Was To Die For
Fox News reports that Nicole Kidman found herself opening up about her past a little more than she has previously done, when she participated in a recent “Actors on Actors” interview with Casey Affleck. During the conversation, Kidman admitted that she lost her ambition to act after marrying Tom Cruise, though she emphasizes that her sudden disinterest in working had nothing to do with Cruise. Instead, Nicole says she’s always been driven by love and the way that being in love makes her feel, so she becomes so consumed by it that everything else falls by the wayside.
As a result, Kidman says she worked less as a newly married actress, focusing more on her marriage to Cruise, which ultimately led to Hollywood losing interest in her as well. After a while, Nicole says she became reinvested in returning to work, but couldn’t find the right role to springboard her career. Nothing seemed right, until Kidman came across To Die For.
“But no one thought I could do it and I think the studio didn’t want me and it sort of went through another bunch of actors,” said Ms. Kidman.
It seemed like a missed opportunity, but Nicole says she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Determined to get the role, the Big Little Lies star called that film’s director, Gus Van Sant, and begged him for the part.
“I said, ‘Please, give me the chance. I beg you.’ Because the writing was so strong. Buck Henry — I mean, come on. Talk about great writing,” says Nicole.
Once To Die For put Kidman back on top, she says she finally found herself in a place where she could pick and choose which projects she was going to pursue.
“Well then I kind of stumbled into Jane Campion and Stanley Kubrick. I kind of went into, ‘Oh, OK, I’m gonna seek out the people that I connect with and who have great minds.'”
Nicole And Keith Urban Want A Bigger Family
Nicole Kidman has a big family already with two children from her marriage to Tom Cruise, 23-year-old Bella and 21-year-old Connor, and two more children with current husband Keith Urban, 8-year-old Sunday Rose Kidman-Urban and 5-year-old Faith Margaret Kidman-Urban, according to Daily Mail. Even so, the Big Little Lies actress says she wants more children, revealing that she and Urban have discussed adoption in their talks of adding to the family.
When asked about managing more children, while still coping with two children who are just at those hyperactive childhood ages, Kidman laughed out loud.
“[We] have got our hands full at the moment,” Kidman said of raising Sunday and Faith. “But you never say never about children, do you?”
The new urge to bring more children into the family may have come from acting in Lion, a movie about a Tasmanian family who adopts a lost boy who has been separated from his family. Ms. Kidman says she felt a strong emotional bond with the story as soon as she read the screenplay. She says she felt a connection to her Lion character, Sue Brierley, and the special love a mother feels for her adopted son.
“Also, there’s the power of the unconditional love that a mother gives,” said Ms. Kidman. “A mother is there, whether it’s Sue Brierley in the film, or me with my children.”
Big Little Lies, starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Laura Dern, premieres on Sunday, February 19, on HBO.
[Featured Image by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]
