despite nicole kidman's legendary acting
prowess there's a lot you might not know
about her journey to the top would you
believe she never used to make the cut
when she auditioned for plays in school
let's take a look at kidman's life and
her stunning transformation
nicole kidman was born in honolulu
hawaii in 1967 and grew up in sydney
australia she had her focus on academics
in her younger years as her father was a
biochemist he taught kidman and her
younger sister many lessons and enforced
a few rules according to kidman's
interview with vanity fair she was
required to do push-ups every day she
said when i was six years old i was in
class at school and we all had to say
what our fathers had taught us i
answered he taught me always to exercise
and never vote republican my teacher
almost fell off her chair and as for
kidman's relationship with her mother it
was not the most affectionate as the
guardian reported kidman's mother once
said to her daughter i'm not the kind of
mother who's going to hug you it's just
not me so don't expect it
when kidman was 17 years old her mother
was diagnosed with breast cancer this
had a huge effect on the teen and has
influenced her throughout her life as
she later described to vanity fair you
see someone go through chemotherapy and
it's a year of hell it's the most
upsetting thing that's ever happened in
my life but it also made me very aware i
had to confront death at an early age
had to realize that people are mortal
kidman's mom beat the disease but her
mother's journey stuck with kidman she
continued to want to give back she later
became involved with the ucla women's
reproductive cancer research and
treatment program as a chairperson as
she said during the interview i believe
that as much as you take you have to
give back it's important not to focus on
yourself too much
nicole kidman has known since her
toddler years that her life was meant to
be in the arts as she described to
vanity fair i started ballet when i was
three all on my own initiative i did
mime and street theater and i started
weekend drama school when i was about
nine i left school when i was 17. i knew
what i wanted to do well it's given me
um
probably what i consider the best
the most fantastic life up until now
but even though kidman knew this was her
path she had some struggles getting
there as she told the magazine i didn't
enjoy being what i was i was really tall
and i wasn't the girl who got all the
boys stocky was my nickname that's what
they called me i'd audition for school
plays and i'd get rejected because i was
too tall it's hard to picture kidman
being rejected thankfully she was able
to disregard those early criticisms and
push forward into the hallowed halls of
hollywood greatness
kidman began to see film's success in
her early 20s she then was cast in the
tom cruise movie days of thunder and in
addition to starring in the film she
struck up a relationship with the
leading man himself the two married when
kidman was just 23 years old kidman
later told vanity fair there is
something about that sort of existence
that if you really focus on each other
and you're in that bubble it's very
intoxicating because it's just the two
of you and there is only one other
person that's going through it so it
brings you very close and it's deeply
romantic and kidman and cruz were
willing to do what it took to make the
marriage work they had crazy schedules
but understood what they had to do in
order to stay happy together kidman said
i think in this industry you can get lax
you can get lazy and that's so
destructive to your relationship if it
means getting on a plane and having to
fly in to see each other even if it's
for 24 hours you do it
marriage at age 23 was not the only big
moment for kidman not too long after her
marriage to tom they adopted their
daughter isabella and their son conor
even though she was so young kidman knew
this was meant to be she later told
vanity fair it's fate completely the
adoption was a very spontaneous thing we
decided to adopt her because the
situation came up i just believe for
whatever reason that these children were
meant to be in our family in 2016 she
was asked during an interview with cbs
sunday morning about why she connected
so well to her character in lion a role
in which she portrays an australian
mother who adopts two indian orphans she
describes the unconditional love she's
always felt as an adoptive mother that
love brings you to your knees that love
has you crawling over hot coals that
love has you laying down on a train
track
in 2001 nicole kidman was reaching even
greater fame she starred in popular
films like the others and moulin rouge
but through the success the actress was
dealing with problems at home at the
time the then 34 year old was going
through a divorce with then-husband tom
cruise kidman shared at the 2015 women
in the world summit in london to be
completely honest i was running from my
life at that time i wasn't able to
handle the reality of my life and as an
actor you have this wonderful thing
where you can go and get lost in
somebody else's life and become somebody
else for a period of time but even with
the opportunity to escape kidman didn't
seem to have any regrets when it came to
the marriage she told australia's who
magazine i got married really fast and
really young but i don't regret that
because it got me children bella and
connor and i did have a fantastic
marriage for a long period
great art also came out of a tough time
for kidman she threw herself into her
work and the results were noticed she
later talked about her divorce and what
happened next saying out of that came
work that was applauded so that was an
interesting thing for me because i was
like ah so i then embraced my own life
and i got myself together and it took me
a number of years and during that time i
worked a lot the work was a great place
for me to exist her work was so
impressive kidman won an oscar in 2003
for her leading role in the hours and it
was in this moment that kidman realized
something she said that work culminated
in winning an oscar and that caused an
epiphany i was sitting in the beverly
hills hotel holding this gold statue and
it was all extraordinary and i was the
loneliest i'd ever been
for a few more years nicole kidman
continued to work and struggle with a
deep sense of loneliness then in 2005
she met someone who would change her
life forever as she later told vanity
fair i think we were two lonely people i
would probably say that two very lonely
people managed to meet at a time when
they could open themselves to each other
we were a mixture of frightened and
brave this person was keith urban their
relationship took off fast culminating
in their marriage in 2006. kidman
explained the situation to elle saying i
kind of like getting married and then
getting to know each other i know that
it sounds incredibly strange but to me
it's a more natural process
nicole kidman of course began her
journey into motherhood when she and her
then husband tom cruise adopted their
children isabella and connor in a 1995
interview with vanity fair kidman
expressed a desire to have biological
children in the future as well i would
like to give birth to two children i
would like to experience that thankfully
she was able to accomplish that goal in
2008 kidman and urban welcomed their
daughter sunday into the world in 2011
the couple had another daughter faith
born via surrogacy she told cnn in an
interview i've experienced adoption
birthing a child and i've experienced
surrogacy i'm like when it comes to it i
just want to be a mama both kidman and
urban were older parents by the time of
their daughter's births this was a
concern for kidman which she expressed
in an interview with cbs sunday morning
it makes me sad i would just like to be
here long enough to have my
my children grow up and for me to see
them
thriving
nicole kidman's career has continued to
excel but the star is totally happy to
stay away from hollywood outside of her
job she lives in nashville with her
husband keith urban and their family and
couldn't be happier in 2013 she told
vanity fair there's an enormous amount
you have to give up if you want to have
a family you can have a certain career
but you can't be living in hollywood
where absolutely everything everything
revolves around it that wasn't my choice
because of this nashville became the
perfect spot for them to relax and raise
their children without the hustle and
toxicity that hollywood is infamous for
as someone who has taken on such
memorable roles nicole kidman must have
a specific strategy when picking her
next part right not so much as she told
town and country i call myself the wild
card because i have no idea what it is
i'm so spontaneous sometimes to my
detriment and sometimes my benefit but
it's how i've always been my husband
never knows what i'm going to choose and
then he'll ask me to explain why and i
can't kidman is the first to admit she's
not perfect and sometimes her choices
don't end up being just right but she's
going with her gut she continued on to
say the mistakes i've made have always
involved people not matching the extreme
artistic desire when i've tried to be a
bit more homogenized or tried not to be
as bold when i've been guided into
places that don't suit what i am
intrinsically that's when it doesn't
work out
after a career of film acting kidman
eventually found herself acting for
television in 2017 when she starred in
big little lies alongside rhys
witherspoon kidman and witherspoon
served as executive producers for the
show which was born from a desire to
create meaningful roles for women kidman
told w magazine it was building
opportunities for ourselves and our
friends the show follows three mothers
played by kidman witherspoon and
shailene woodley whose lives spin out of
control kidman became deeply connected
to her character celeste and would often
bring her work home with her kidman told
w magazine i would keep on a very brave
face at work and then i would go home
and i didn't realize how much it had
penetrated me and it affected me in a
deep way in 2021 kidman starred in
another television show based off of a
book by the same author of big little
lies nine perfect strangers follows nine
strangers as they arrive on a resort
island and quickly discover that their
dream retreat isn't quite what they
expected
according to the hollywood reporter
nicole kidman and javier bardem weren't
exactly fan favorite choices when the
two were cast to play lucille ball and
desi arness for the film being the
ricardo's at the time of the film's
production in 2021 kidman had never
truly branched out into comedic acting
embodying one of the most famous
comediennes of all time proved to be a
monumental task for the actor she told
the hollywood reporter when i started
doing all the physical comedy and doing
her voice when it finally came it was
like ah and then i didn't want to stop
doing it to prepare for the role kidman
worked with a voice coach to lower her
pitch to match ball's signature voice
she would also undergo a hair and makeup
transformation that involved wigs and
prosthetics
with nicole kidman's oscar-nominated
performance in lion and her powerful
role in the hbo series big little lies
it's clear that she is not slowing down
she continues to surprise us with her
artistic choices and knocks it out of
the park each time whether she is giving
an intense soliloquy in character or
jokingly telling jimmy fallon he could
have asked her out in the past she never
fails to surprise i can't believe i
dated nicole kidman this is fantastic
you didn't this is unbelievable
we don't know what's on deck for kidman
but we'll be paying close attention to
her acting career kidman is a breath of
fresh air and we're anxiously waiting to
see what she challenges herself to do
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