Nicole Kidman

• 1. Heavenly Star

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  Nicole Kidman was born on the 20th of June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was given the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani, which means heavenly star. The inspiration for the name was a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo. Since the late 1990s she has ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses. Her career now spans nearly four decades and more than 80 film and television projects. How does an actress from Sydney reach that position, and what does she risk to stay there? Why do critics call her one of Hollywood's bravest performers while others find her hard to read? And what does she do with her fame once the cameras stop?

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• 2. A Shy Child

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  Antony Kidman was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa when his daughter was born, and the family was in the United States on student visas. He went on to become a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. The family lived in Washington, D.C. during the Vietnam War, and both parents took part in anti-Vietnam War protests there. Three years after her birth, they returned to Australia.

  Her father worked as a biochemist, a clinical psychologist and an author. Her mother, Janelle Ann, was a nursing instructor and a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, and she edited her husband's books. Nicole has a younger sister, Antonia, who is a journalist and television presenter. Because she was born in the United States to Australian parents, Nicole holds both Australian and American citizenship.

  Longueville, a suburb of Sydney, is where she grew up, attending Lane Cove Public School and later North Sydney Girls High School. Her ballet lessons began at the age of three. She showed a natural talent for acting through her primary and high school years.

  Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz is what first made her want to act, by her own account. Despite that ambition, she has described herself as truly shy. In her words, "I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness." Even now, she dislikes walking alone into a crowded restaurant or a party.

  As a teenager she attended the Phillip Street Theatre, where Naomi Watts was a fellow student. She also joined the Australian Theatre for Young People, where she studied drama and mime and found that acting gave her a refuge. Her fair skin and naturally red hair made the sun a problem, so she rehearsed in the halls of the theatre. Regulars at Phillip Street encouraged her to pursue acting full-time, and she did so by dropping out of high school. She was 16 when her first film role arrived.

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• 3. Breakthrough Years

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  Bush Christmas, a remake of an Australian holiday classic, gave her a screen debut in 1983. That same year came the action comedy BMX Bandits and a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984 her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Kidman paused her acting work and studied massage therapy so she could help with her mother's physical therapy.

  Windrider, a romantic comedy from 1986, kept her visible in Australian cinema. The 1987 miniseries Vietnam brought her first Australian Film Institute Award. A second followed for Emerald City in 1988, a film based on a play of the same name.

  Dead Calm, a thriller released in 1989, turned her into an international name. She played Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer, opposite Sam Neill, while Billy Zane played a castaway who menaces them at sea. Variety wrote that "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Roger Ebert praised the pairing of the leads, writing that "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together."

  Days of Thunder, a 1990 sports action film, cast her opposite Tom Cruise as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. It is considered her international breakout and was among the year's highest-grossing films. She followed the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton with that Hollywood step.

  Flirting, an Australian independent film from 1991, cast her with Thandiwe Newton and her former classmate Naomi Watts as high school girls. It won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. Her work in Billy Bathgate that year earned her first Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. Far and Away, Ron Howard's Irish epic with Cruise, was a modest critical and commercial success in 1992.

  In 1993 she took roles in two very different films. The thriller Malice put her opposite Alec Baldwin, and the drama My Life paired her with Michael Keaton.

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• 4. Risk And Reward

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  To Die For, released in 1995, gave Kidman the part of Suzanne Stone, a murderous newscaster, in Gus Van Sant's dark comedy. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said she "lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." The performance won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.

  Batman Forever arrived the same year, with Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, opposite Val Kilmer. Practical Magic followed in 1998, with Sandra Bullock as her co-star and sister. It opened at the top of the charts in North America but was a commercial failure. That year she also returned to the stage in David Hare's play The Blue Room in London, which earned her a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.

  Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, reunited her with then-husband Tom Cruise in 1999 as a couple on a sexual odyssey. Its explicit scenes led to censorship controversies. After a short break and a highly publicized divorce, she played a mail-order bride in the drama Birthday Girl.

  Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge! came in 2001, with Kidman as the cabaret actress and courtesan Satine opposite Ewan McGregor. Paul Clinton of CNN wrote that with Satine, "she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." She earned a second Golden Globe and her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Her duet with McGregor, "Come What May", was released as a single on the 24th of September 2001 and was certified Gold in Australia. Her cover of "Somethin' Stupid" with Robbie Williams topped the charts in the UK for three weeks.

  The Others, a ghost story directed by Alejandro Amenábar, placed her as Grace Stewart, a mother in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. It grossed over $210 million worldwide.

  The Hours followed in 2002, with Kidman as Virginia Woolf alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Prosthetics on her nose left her almost unrecognizable as the author in 1920s England. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win it. In her acceptance speech she mentioned the ongoing Iraq War and said "Because art is important." She also shared a Silver Bear for Best Actress.

  After the Oscar she chose three unlike films in 2003. Dogville, from director Lars von Trier, was an experimental work set on a bare soundstage. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called her performance the most emotionally bruising of her career. She also appeared in The Human Stain opposite Anthony Hopkins. In Cold Mountain she played Ada Monroe, a Southerner who falls in love during the American Civil War, and received her sixth Golden Globe nomination.

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• 5. Box Office And Television

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  No. 5 the Film, a three-minute commercial for Chanel No. 5 directed by Baz Luhrmann, reportedly earned Kidman $12 million. That made her the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor. Forbes placed her 45th on its 2005 Celebrity 100 List, and People ranked her second among the highest-paid actresses of 2005, behind Julia Roberts.

  Happy Feet, the 2006 animated film in which she lent her voice, grossed over $384 million worldwide. The Golden Compass, with Kidman as the villain Marisa Coulter, grossed over $370 million. Australia, a Luhrmann period film set around the Japanese attack on Darwin, earned over $211 million against a $130 million budget despite mixed reviews. Lion, in which she played the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, cost $12 million and earned over $140 million. Richard Roeper called her performance as good as anything she had done in a decade.

  Aquaman, released in 2018, placed her as Queen Atlanna and grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide. That total makes it her highest-grossing film to date. She returned to the role in a sequel in December 2023.

  Big Little Lies on HBO, which premiered in 2017, marked her return to television. She served as executive producer with co-star Reese Witherspoon and director Jean-Marc Vallée. Kidman played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer who hides an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. The series brought her a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. As a producer she also won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series.

  A second season in June 2019 drew a bigger audience than the first. It became the most-watched night of viewing for an HBO original series that year. The Undoing followed in 2020, in which she played Grace Fraser, a New York therapist. It was HBO's first original series to increase its viewership week after week, and it became the network's most-watched show of 2020.

  Nine Perfect Strangers arrived on Hulu in August 2021 and became the service's most-watched original on its premiere day. That year she also played Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, won a Golden Globe for it and earned her fifth Oscar nomination overall. In September 2021 she appeared in an AMC Theatres commercial titled "We Make Movies Better", which played before every film in the chain's cinemas. The chain's chief executive, Adam Aron, called the ad iconic and revered.

  The Perfect Couple, a Netflix series from September 2024, was a global hit despite mixed reviews and led the charts for two consecutive weeks.

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• 6. Method And Mask

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  Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker wrote that Kidman "can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." That sums up the divided way critics describe her. Vanity Fair called her a star bigger than the Hollywood system, in the way Elizabeth Taylor was.

  Method acting is central to how she works. She often transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally to resemble her characters, and the effect has at times harmed her health. Mark Caro of the Los Angeles Times compared the process to a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. W described her as a cipher who gets so far under a character's skin that it becomes hard to tell the actress from the role.

  Scholars read her work differently from one another. Sharon Marie Carnicke of the USC School of Dramatic Arts described it as kinetic, with choices that feel natural as reactions to the character's circumstances. Dennis Bingham of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis argued that she acts a step or two outside the character, so that even her emotional responses become signs. Pam Cook, writing a biography of Kidman, suggests she favors cinematic expression over the actor's own body and intentions. Mary Luckhurst of the University of Bristol credits a strategic pursuit of high-risk versatility. Luckhurst adds that Kidman often speaks of getting lost in a role.

  Kidman herself says, "I still approach acting like I've just come out of drama school." Arte France released a 53-minute documentary about her in 2023, titled Nicole Kidman - Eyes Wide Open.

  A chartreuse gown by John Galliano for Christian Dior, worn to the 1997 Academy Awards, is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history. It has been credited with changing red carpet fashion. Vogue also singled out a red Balenciaga look from the 2007 Oscars and a Calvin Klein ballerina dress from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. The Council of Fashion Designers of America gave her its Fashion Icon Award in 2003. In December 2023 she joined Balenciaga as a brand ambassador.

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• 7. Causes And Collaborators

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  In 1994 Kidman was appointed a Goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and in 2006 she took the same role for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM. That year she visited Kosovo to learn about women's experiences of conflict. As the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO - UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative, she presented over five million signatures to the UN Secretary-General on the 25th of November 2008. In 2009 she testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs in support of the International Violence Against Women Act.

  London had fifty Paddington Bear statues in 2014, ahead of the film's release, and Kidman designed a gold one. It was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In 2016 she donated $50,000 to UN Women. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care, which designs T-shirts and vests to raise money for the cause.

  The Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, presented her with the Companion of the Order of Australia on the 13th of April 2007 at Government House in Canberra. The honour had been announced in the 2006 Australia Day Honours, but film commitments and her wedding delayed the ceremony.

  In 2017 Kidman pledged to work with a female director every 18 months to address gender disparities in the film industry. As of February 2025 she had worked with 19 female directors, in acting or producing roles, over eight years. Halina Reijn, who directed Babygirl, said Kidman is one of the few people who practices what she preaches about feminism. Mimi Cave, director of Holland, said Kidman "makes herself completely available to you as a director." Lulu Wang, who directed Expats, said Kidman's support helped build a network of women and people of color who had never had the opportunity to be in that space. Jamie Lee Curtis, her co-star in Scarpetta, said "People work when Nicole works." Some critics counter that these choices have led to repetitive roles, citing The Perfect Couple.

  Babygirl brought her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. She was absent from the ceremony because her mother had died.

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• 8. Marriages And Homes

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  On Christmas Eve 1990, Kidman married Tom Cruise in Colorado, a little over a year after they met on the set of Days of Thunder. The couple adopted a daughter and a son. Their spokesperson announced their separation on the 5th of February 2001, and Cruise filed for divorce two days later. The marriage was dissolved later that year. In 2013 Kidman said, "I was a child, really, when I got married. And I needed to grow up." In 2015 she said that the divorce led her to concentrate on her career.

  G'Day LA, an event honoring Australians, is where she met the Australian-American country singer Keith Urban in January 2005. They married on the 25th of June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. Their honeymoon was in French Polynesia. Their first daughter was born in Nashville in 2008, and their second was born in 2010 through gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.

  In 2015 Kidman said that she and Urban did not really know each other at first and got to know each other during their marriage. Urban has credited her with helping him overcome his struggles with alcohol addiction. The couple kept homes in Nashville, Beverly Hills, Sydney, Sutton Forest in New South Wales and Manhattan. In September 2025 it was revealed that they had separated and that Kidman had filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized on the 6th of January 2026.

  She is also set to star in, and executive produce, several upcoming projects. They include an Amazon Prime Video series, Scarpetta, based on Patricia Cornwell's novels, and the Apple TV+ series Margo's Got Money Troubles.

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