Can I just say? Nicole Kidman is one of a very elite class of women who can pull off these super-sleek, tighter-than-tight, Croydon facelift hairstyles. Jennifer Lopez always attempts this look and I’ve always thought it fell flat on her, but Nicole looks so amazing and fierce with this sleek look. Nicole covers the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar Australia – the cover is an homage to an old Kate Moss cover, which is weird, right? It’s weird that they would get Kidman to homage Moss. Anyway, I really like this shoot even if it’s not that original. I prefer my Kidman looking like a drag queen princess as opposed to some sexed-up bombshell or a lady of the manor (two styles she’s been doing a lot lately).
As for the interview, there are only a few quotes floating around, but they were enough to make me roll my eyes at her. She managed to get in a quote about Tom Cruise without having to mention his name, but I chuckled at her “emptiness” quote:
After breaking up with Tom Cruise, winning an Oscar wasn’t enough solace for Nicole Kidman.
“I was having professional success and my personal life was struggling,” she says in Harper’s Bazaar.
Capturing a Best Actress award, as she did for her role in “The Hours,” “can show you the emptiness of your own life, which is kind of what it showed me,” she said.
Now happy with her husband, country singer Keith Urban, she said that she’s content with smaller film roles.
“I’m not carrying the whole film, and it’s not six to seven months’ work like ‘Moulin Rouge’!” the 46-year-old actress said. “I get to come for three weeks and then go home,” she added.
The after-Cruise thing is what it is. I understand that she self-edits and tries to explain the circumstances around their split cryptically, but I feel certain that Nicole will never tell us the real story of their marriage and divorce, and we may never know. As for the “emptiness of her life” after she won her Oscar… sure, I guess we’re supposed to think that career achievements means nothing when compared to her second chance at love and motherhood and isn’t that some homespun wisdom? But here’s the thing – if chasing awards is so “empty” then why is still doing it? Why is she still trying to do these sad, Oscar-baity films, like her Grace Kelly attempt, Grace of Monaco?
Photos courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar Aus.
Wow, they lit/photo-shopped a 46-yo Nicole to look 26. Scared of aging much?
Did they photoshop her fingers in the last photo? They seem way out of proportion.
I think she’s just saying that at the best moment of her career, she didn’t have anyone to share it with- her husband had ditched her and her kids had been brainwashed against her. I don’t think the award itself felt empty, just the situation she found herself in at that time.
That’s what I thought, too. Winning an Oscar was probably a major dream for her, but without her children or any love in her life, it wasn’t what she had imagined and made her see what was really important to her. That’s what I got, anyway.
Lucy2 & GoodNames, I agree. An Oscar is quite an achievement but she had just had the rug pulled out from under her. That’s not fun.
She had a miscarriage at that time as well so she must have been at her worst, poor thing. She said she channeled all the hurt and depression into the role, which must have seemed like a long dark tunnel at that point so I totally get what she’s saying about the Oscar.
@lucy2: I totally agree. I think NK’s comments make perfect sense, and are worded well.
Yeah, I don’t think she’s saying that winning an Oscar is an empty experience, only that it highlighted for her how unhappy she was at the time.
I thought the same thing.
She’s also made some cryptic statments over the years that imply that although she’s ambitious, her career came second to her marriage. She also acknowledged that after Tom ditched her, she threw herself into her career and started doing some really good work. Of course at the time she was also being alienated from her children. From these statements, I expected her career to slow down after she married Keith.
She’s admitted that after the divorce she laid in bed unable to get up. Apparently her mom is the no nonsense type who simply says – get out of bed and get over it. Naomi Watts did move in with her for a while to support her. I imagine that was her life at it’s lowest point. You’ve lost what you thought was a happy marriage, you’ve lost your children, your pregnancy, and even the image of being one of Hollywood’s successful super couples. That’s a very high point to crash from. I think as satisfying as it was to be acknowledged by your peers, it wears off quickly, and you’re still alone. I believe she does have with Keith what she never had with Tom. I assume she doesn’t have to share Keith with some cult that he’s obsessed with. It’s probably a powerful feeling. I don’t think she’s a weak woman who’s saying she can’t be fulfilled alone.
I don’t think her daughter had been brainwashed against her at that time – Bella went to those Oscars with Nicole’s mother, she’s clearly delighted when her mother wins, and they cut to her beaming when Nicole said her mother always made her proud, and now she hoped she could make her daughter proud as well. It was kind of heartbreaking, looking back now.
It’s at 3.30 onwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0FWFQpnZ54
I’ve looked at what she said up, down, and sideways and I still can’t shade her for it. Her life was professionally, but not personally, successful when she won the Oscar. It made her realize that. Now she’s happy and fulfilled in her personal life so whatever role she does or what awards may or may not come with it, then so be it.
I like the pics but I hope that’s not all of them – too one-dimensional.
I Looove the pics!!!
Me too. She’s my girl crush ATM. Such elegance.
how can they justify that much photoshop on those pics?
I don’t get the connection between what she said and campaigning (or not campaigning) for future awards. She wasn’t shading her Oscar win or saying it was pointless. She was just saying her personal life was unfulfilling at the time.
She’s certainly not the first woman who’s felt professionally fulfilled but empty in her personal life. And it doesn’t mean your professional achievements are worthless or that you stop striving for more.
Excellent incisive post, Samtha. Your 2nd paragraph nailed it. The insinuation of this non story falls really flat.
+1
Absolutely agree. Also I don’t believe she’s chasing another Oscar or doing Oscar-bait stuff.
I genuinely think that Nicole Kidman makes movies based on the fact that she’s going to work with a director that she finds interesting. God knows why she did Grace Kelly because Olivier Dahan is a terrible director but looking at the crap in her filmography (impressive filmography I may add), you know she did Bewitched just to work with Nora Ephron for example.
Nicole specifically said that she felt empty after winning the Oscar because her personal life was falling apart. When unhappy in life, awards don’t seem like much. Also why is she talking about Tom all of the time? For ten years nothing now he’s mentioned in every interview for the past couple of years.
She probably signed some kind of agreement not to speak about their relationship or him in detail…and I’m sure he used the kids as a bargaining chip. She ended up losing them in her life anyway because of Scientology, so now she has nothing to lose. Time has passed, Tom has had another failed marriage partly due to his batshit religion (and insanely repressed homosexuality, in my opinion), so the stakes are much lower now…she can basically say more than she could have years ago.
I agree Jules. I think she’s seen Tom AND CoS fall apart to the point where neither has the power to threaten anymore. She has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Also, my guess is she’s subtly or not subtly helping Katie…..
I agree with LadySlippers – Nicole probably seems all the trouble CO$ is in, and how the public opinion has turned against Tom, and doesn’t feel so scared anymore.
I’m glad she’s speaking up a bit more – I think he and that cult did a number on her and their family, and it’s probably taken a lot to move past that and find happiness, especially losing her kids as she did.
and insanely repressed homosexuality, in my opinion).
Let’s leave the world of fantasy. The “marriages” with Rogers, Kidiman and Holmes were to hide it. They earn money, fame and advancing their careers. Of 03 Nicole was the worst. More ambitious and left their children behind.
Sometimes an ex is just a part of the answer. You can’t erase whole passages of time.
My boyfriend had a wife (almost 20 years ago) for eight years and he references her frequently. Often it’s because I’ll ask a question and she is part of the answer. ( “Why didn’t you ever visit so and so?” — “Betty hated cats…”)
A lot of the stuff he did – she was there. She was a big part of his life socially, day to day, for a long time.
Gorgeous cover!!!!!!! This is fashion.
I get it. She won the highest award as an actor you can ever hope to achieve, and ultmately it didn’t gve her the happiness it should,because she was at her lowest personally during that time.. An award wasn’t going to fill that emptiness. I don’t see any problem with the comment.
Her face looks so much like the old Nicole in that cover.
whats success if you have no one to love? or to support you when you are failing? i think younger generations being to realize the faults of their parents generation that having a big career is not the most important thing in life. ask your grandfathers what they regret the most in their lives. most will tell you that they spent so little time with their families and were working instead. unfortuntately the generation after them didnt learn from their absence and now society is telling women that working an office job 16 hours a day is lifes biggest fulfilment and business meetings give you greater pleasure than spending time with people you love. so just recreating the faults of all the men before them.
i think this system of work work work and then dying is almost over.
I hope you’re right Sarah and I agree completely with everything you said. 🙂
I want to see a full look of that cover dress.
Nicole looks like that ballerina in a music box and knows how to work it. Lemme slink off now to my short, dark, stumpy, high street existence now… LOL
Ok, they did something MAJOR to her hairline. I know this because I have loved her fashion over the years and have always noticed that she had an absolutely mammoth widow’s peak, so much that I wanted her to never wear her hair pulled off her face again because it was scary. It’s gone. Now I’m really scared.
I agree, though I don’t think it’s a widow’s peak but just very thin hair around the corners of the forehead. I know, because I have it, too. What’s really strange is that they filled it in in the first photo, but not in the others.
Oh, you’re right! That is so crazy.
I am loving the photos!!
He never should have left kidman. I do believe she either truly loved him or the life they had together, and he can’t seem to find anyone else.
Bloody lucky for her that he did, though. I suspect her life now is infinitely better, heartbreaking as losing her 2 older kids must have been.
Her nose looks weird in that 2nd pic, all nostrils and looks like a nose job, maybe she got one way back when (she is someone who has tweaked ALOT for years). And the “not carrying the film” and her taking small movies part, likely that is not her choice (She has always seemed CONSUMED with working and winning awards, especially awards, I do think she chooses many of her roles thinking they are award-worthy), it’s likely she HAS to take smaller parts. Not as many parts for her now that she is mid-40s, plus she can’t open a film on her name alone or as a co-star even (she likely needs an ensemble now to open a movie) AND with so many bombs where she was the main star…likely all that contributed to the OFFER of small parts, she has no choice.
“Why is she still trying to do these sad, Oscar-baity films, like her Grace Kelly attempt, Grace of Monaco?”
uhh… because it’s still work. is she supposed to just stay at home even though she has the opportunity to keep at her craft regardless of how crappy the end product?
Well, and I think it’s worth considering what else might be available to her, assuming she wants to keep working. There are a handful of actresses who are able to work regularly in leading roles or interesting supporting roles in their 40s and 50s. Most of the rest end up either scrambling for interesting parts or resign themselves to playing underwritten mother roles.
Kidman had a chance to be in the lucky group at one point, but her career kind of went of the rails around 5 years ago. Plus, I imagine that Grace of Monaco seemed like a better idea when she signed on than it does to us know. Even people at the top of their game sometimes end up in bad movies.
fantastic makeup job. she doesn’t look a day over ‘Moulin Rouge’. go Nic!
I think this shoot is beautiful.
But on this silly comment:
“But here’s the thing – if chasing awards is so “empty” then why is still doing it? Why is she still trying to do these sad, Oscar-baity films, like her Grace Kelly attempt, Grace of Monaco?”
Um, so is she supposed to only try to shitty films? If you aren’t after an award you shouldn’t try to do good work? DUMB.
exactly. girl is an actress, what shes suppose to do?
I wish she could see how pretty she is and stop ____ing with her face. This shoot got close to the Old Nic face.
I get this. When you chase a goal for a long time, there’s an empty feeling when you achieve it (before you decide what to chase next, if you’re an ambitious person). The Arctic Monkeys have a great line about this in a song:
“The day after a triumph is as hollow as the day after a tragedy.”
That said, the situation with her face has become something of a disorder, and it pains me to look at her (or see the movies she’s in). Whoever styled her for the Jimmy Choo photos, she should hire full time. It’s the first time she’s looked like a human woman in years.
Also, please magazines, stop it with the squatting pose. It looks like she’s got a potty under there.
so true about the empty feeling. It always makes me think of that poem at the beginning of Valley of the Dolls.
“You’ve got to climb Mount Everest to reach the valley of the dolls. It’s a brutal climb to reach that peak. You stand there, waiting for the rush of exhilaration. You’re alone… And the feeling of loneliness is overpowering…….”
Once upon a time, fashion magazines had professional models on the cover. Now all we see are surgically enhanced mediocre actresses who are running from aging as fast as they can. That’s why their faces are stretched back and their lips puffed out like a bulldog with its head out poked out of a fast moving car.
I’m a Nicole lover always have been always will be so I feel the need to clarify her statement. she said something along the same lines as the above re winning an Oscar in another interview which was more detailed and she said something like “winning an Oscar really hit home that I didn’t have a significant other to share my successes with” or something like that.
With regards to her divorce from Tommy Girl, I will hold out hope that when she is older and no longer has anything to loose ie can’t be sued by TC and wont risk her career, that she may write a memoir
Beautiful editorial
Absolutely stunning! Great photos, she is such a classy lady.