With all of the Oscar buzz circulating, Nicole Kidman is
certainly one actress who’s being buzzed the loudest. Being a
native-born Australian shouldn’t be any hurdle in winning the
American award; the iconic Aussie Russell Crowe won Best Actor in
2000 and according to Kidman, she could win in a fight any day.
“I could definitely beat up Russell,” said Kidman
giggling. “Yeah, I could get him into a headlock. I’d
just whisper into his ear, “˜Let me win!’ and he would,
he would let me win.”
Unfortunately, Kidman doesn’t have time to beat up
rough-and-tumble superstars. Now that “The Hours” has
been released, Kidman has been hard at work on the publicity trail,
appearing on TV shows, magazine covers, and newspapers across the
country. Lucky for her, she got to relax over her holiday break.
The hard part is going back to it all.
“I did the usual things: read, eat, sleep, go out. I went
swimming a lot, too,” Kidman said, having just flown in from
Sydney. “I come back from holiday, and I think, “˜God! I
don’t want to work!’ But when I’m working,
I’m working. I go to extremes.”
And today will be one of those extreme work days. She will
receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and attend a sold-out
appearance and screening at the Egyptian Theatre. It’s all in
a day’s work for one of the most powerful and talented women
in movies today.
The Egyptian will screen her latest release, “The
Hours,” which features three women whose lives are linked to
Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Nicole plays
the prolific Woolf, and she sought more than mere imitation of the
author for her character.
“You’re speaking for her when you’re playing
her,” Kidman said. “I wanted to be able to defend her
and be her without any doubt. You have to absorb everything you
can; you have to be the expert. But you have to find some things
for yourself. I wanted to exist within the structure of who she
was.”
Kidman credits director Stephen Daldry for creating the right
atmosphere on set for entering the mind of Woolf, a
stream-of-consciousness modernist writer whose work deconstructed
myths of the female artist.
“In terms of creating Virginia’s life and marriage,
there had to be an intimacy,” Kidman said. “It’s
like a bubble; nothing can penetrate it. There is no outside
world.”
Now that “The Hours” is in theaters, Kidman has been
hard at work, appearing on several television shows, on countless
magazine covers, and in many newspapers, all to sell this film.
“It’s like a child: you have to take it under your
wing,” Kidman said. “You say, “˜I’m gonna
protect this now.’ If people give it a chance, if it
succeeds, it will be good for the industry. It will say you can
make intelligent movies about women in pain, finding hope, finding
out why we are here. It’s easy to say, “˜No one wants to
see this movie.’ I don’t agree.”
Kidman is nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as
Woolf in “The Hours,” and there is talk of her getting
a second Oscar nomination (“Moulin Rouge” was the
first), but she chooses not to get wrapped up in the award season
hoopla. Instead, she’ll be filming in New York.
“I like getting lost in something else,” Kidman
said. “It’s so much healthier to do what you want to
do.”
But amid all the publicity, the awards, and the seemingly
endless work, it boils down to one thing for Kidman: art.
“I want to act out of the purity of wanting to make
art,” Kidman said. “It sounds so pretentious, but
it’s that simple. I’m just drawn to things that say
something, that are different. I want to stay as pure as I
can.”
For more info about tonight’s screening of “The
Hours,” log on to www.egyptiantheatre.com or call (323)
466-FILM.