Nicole Kidman covers the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar. The editorial is kind of strange? I’ve gotten so used to seeing Nicole in a variety of wigs and weaves, seeing her naturally curly red hair took me by surprise. But that’s not it – she seems frozen in time and kind of depressed about it in this photoshoot. It’s weird. Nicole is promoting Nine Perfect Strangers in the interview, but mostly she’s just chatting about her life and times. She’s been in and out of Australia throughout the pandemic, getting special government authorization to quarantine in her home when she’s coming and going. She’s basically Aussie royalty, or at least that’s how she’s treated. Some highlights from this Bazaar interview:
Why she’s spent so much time in Australia: “Grandma’s 81. I’m going to do this little job, but primarily Grandma is here and she needs to have her family around her.”
Working in a bubble on Nine Perfect Strangers in Oz: “We just really bonded, and that’s unusual for this day and age. Because a lot of times people are coming in and leaving and you don’t get that camaraderie and friendship.”
To be a woman making art: “I suppose the artist spirit, a lot of times, is saying, ‘I don’t care what it’s gonna cost me as a human being, because my thrust is deeply artistic.’ If you’re really dedicated to it over a lifetime, that push-pull will collide with your existence and your connections with your family and all the people in your life. How much will that cost them? How much will it cost you personally? And how important is that artistic contribution?”
How she manages to work so much: “[I do] not have a big social life. I have my work, I have my family, I have my own inner landscape that I explore. I choose that probably more than I choose to be out partying.”
On her divorce from Tom Cruise: (Was it over Scientology? Only she knows.) But when I ask whether she felt annoyed by the press focusing so maniacally on her relationship, she says simply, “I was young. I think I offered it up? Maybe I’ve gotten a bit more trepidatious, but I’m always trying to be as open as possible. I just prefer to live in the world that way. I’m wary at times, and I’ve been hurt, but at the same time I much prefer a warm approach rather than a prickly shutdown approach. My husband, Keith, says that when he met me, he said, ‘How’s your heart?’ And I apparently responded, ‘Open.’”
Her marriage to Keith: “We’re always working through stuff, but it’s very much love based, so there’s an enormous amount of give and take/ I want him to have the best life he can have, and he responds the same way. We really love parenting together.”
Working during the pandemic: “I’ve seen the effects on the arts firsthand. My husband, who’s a musician, really did not work for two years. We’re all having to shift right now but still trying to create art through this process.”
I was surprised that Bazaar even mentioned Cruise and Scientology in the piece, although it doesn’t seem like they asked Nicole specifically “did your marriage end because of CoS?” At this point, magazines know not to ask that, although I would still like to know and I do wonder if Nicole will ever really talk about it. It was 20 years ago though, surely it’s kind of weird to still ask her questions about it. She’s gotten really good at deflecting about Cruise and people rarely even mention Bella and Connor either. As for not having much of a social life… she really doesn’t, at least not that I can see. I think she’s really family-oriented and happiest with her daughters, her sister, her mom.
Covers and IG courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar.
