I will never be able to stop looking at ^^ this dress Nicole Kidman wore to the Lion premiere. Is she channeling her inner lion? Or maybe she wanted to look like she’d battled a lion? It’s like an optical illusion. Nevertheless, as part of her promotion for Lion, she sat down to do The Jess Cagle Interview. Nicole and Jess have known each for 15 years, which is where Jess excels. He seems to know the right balance of personal insight and what the public wants to know. One topic discussed was her marriage to Tom Cruise. Nicole has always maintained that Tom was lovely to her and that she genuinely enjoyed their marriage. So it’s no real surprise that she, once again, speaks glowingly of their time together.

The day Nicole Kidman met Tom Cruise was one of the most memorable — and pivotal — moments in her career.

Speaking on The Jess Cagle Interview, Kidman told PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly‘s editorial director that her first meeting with Cruise was during her audition for 1990’s Days of Thunder — the film which sparked her romance and later marriage to the action star — when she was still an up-and-coming actress and very new to Hollywood.

“I remember walking in, I remember being so nervous and seeing Tom Cruise drive up in a Porsche, I think it was,” she recalled. “He got out of the car and walked through and I was like, ‘Ah.’ My jaw dropped. Then I had to go in and audition in front of Tony Scott. Sweet Tony. [Producers] Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Robert Towne and Tom. I was like, ‘No way, I’m not going to get this.’ They called that afternoon and I had the job.”

The Lion actress revealed that she celebrated the good news with her mother.

“I was just like, ‘Oh my god, Mom!’ Yeah, that was huge. Huge,” says Kidman. “You know, obviously, changed my life extraordinarily. So grateful for the film, for everything that came with it. It was a big, important part of my life.”

While Kidman is now happily married to husband Keith Urban, with whom she has two daughters, Kidman also shares two children with ex-husband Cruise: Isabella and Connor Cruise.

“[It was] a beautiful marriage and all of those things that came out of it,” Kidman says of her 10-year marriage to Cruise. “Two beautiful children. The rest is history.”

[From People]

For years I held the impression that ice water ran through Nicole’s veins but I actually can’t remember hearing her say something negative about someone in an interview. In fact, she is fairly effusive. I wonder if she honestly believes it or feels she is supposed to say it? I say that because another trademark of Nicole’s is to say, of every role, she didn’t think she was talented/experienced/known/worthy enough for it. She has to have some idea of her talent, right? Mostly, I think she speaks of her marriage to Tom the way she does because of their kids, which is admirable. But she did say that when she was filming To Die For, the whole family relocated for her and emphasized how supportive Tom was and how grateful she was.

As nice as she spoke of Tom, she had even nicer things to say about current husband Keith Urban. However, as Jess is also a recovering alcoholic, he asked Nicole what advice does she have for others struggling with addiction and more importantly, those trying to help them. (Which is a great question.) The point Nicole makes is a very important one – that you cannot help a person who doesn’t want it. And she emphasized it’s, “a very big thing for people like me who go, ‘I can take care of you. I can do it.’”

They ended the interview discussing Big Little Lies. I just finished reading the book and think Nicole Kidman is perfect for Celeste. I am not feeling Reece Witherspoon for Madeline, though. I hope she proves me wrong because Madeline was my favorite character. Nicole said the movie, “is very topical, very now” – that it’s about moms and parenting. Uhm… I mean yes, it does have to do with the competition we feel as parents but generally, the bloodshed is only something we imagine.

Photo Credit: Fame/Flynet Photos and Getty Images