Nicole Kidman has announced that her beloved mother has died, just hours before she won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival, which ended on Saturday, for her role in Babygirl.
The 57-year-old actress, who plays an influential New York businesswoman who embarks on a risky affair with her much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not in attendance.
Instead, director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, in which he revealed that Nicole’s mother died while she was in Venice.
The statement said: “I am in shock and need to get home to my family but this award is for her.
“I am beyond grateful to be able to say her name to all of you. The collision of life and art is heartbreaking and my heart is broken.”
Nicole Kidman has announced that her beloved mother has died, just hours before she was awarded Best Actress for her role in Babygirl at the Venice Film Festival, which closed on Saturday.
‘I am in shock and have to go to my family, but this award is for her’
In a January 2022 interview with the Fresh Air podcast, Nicole briefly discussed her mother’s health struggles.
She said they had been able to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales after closing time, where they had seen the Matisse: Life & Spirit exhibition, which she described as ‘a calming balm’.
“We are here mainly to take care of my mother and let her enjoy her grandchildren,” she said.
“Luckily, despite Omicron sweeping through this country, we were able to take her to the gallery after hours yesterday and show her the Matisse exhibition. And coming from a mother who raised me in the arts, it was a soothing balm. Matisse was a soothing balm last night.”
Later in the interview, Nicole said she felt privileged to be able to see the world through her mother’s eyes, describing it as “so precious.”
“I’m at the point where I have the opportunity to see the world. Because we’re so close, my mother gives me the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of an 81-year-old woman,” she explains.
“That’s so advantageous now, because she’s so aware. She has all the available brain faculties, so she hasn’t lost anything. She hasn’t lost any memory, which is fascinating, and she’s extremely smart.
“She gives me access, because she is also very direct and honest. So I get access to the world through her eyes, my mother’s eyes, and therefore a part of me at almost 80.”
She added: ‘It’s her perspective, obviously. There are many different 80-year-old perspectives, but it’s her perspective and her particular path, but I’m drinking it in and learning from it.’
In a January 2022 interview with the Fresh Air podcast, Nicole briefly discussed her mother’s health struggles
Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, Nicole admitted she felt “vulnerable” filming multiple masturbation scenes, plus portraying a submissive/dominant relationship for the new erotic thriller.
Rising British star Harris Dickinson is on the verge of a career-defining role as Samuel, the intern who senses that his boss, Kidman, the CEO of a tech company, wants to be dominated.
Since Nicole made the erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut with her then-husband Tom Cruise 25 years ago, she has not made anything comparable.
She said an intimacy coordinator and a closed set were essential to creating the sex scenes that tell the story of her character’s existential crisis, resolved through a taboo-breaking sexual odyssey.
The actress said: ‘I think this film is obviously about sex, but it’s also about desire, about your inner thoughts, about secrets, about marriage, about truth, power and consent.
“This is one woman’s story and I hope it’s a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze. It’s Halina’s (Reijn) script, she wrote it and she directs it and that made it unique, that I would suddenly be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very dear to our shared instincts and very, very liberating.”
Her director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, in which he revealed that Nicole’s mother died while she was in Venice
The 57-year-old actress, who plays an influential New York businesswoman who embarks on a risky affair with her much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not present
She added: ‘I don’t think there’s any judgement attached to it (about the character). It’s up to each person to react to Romy and the way she behaves.
‘My connection to it is that I want to explore people, women, on screen, to discover what it means to be human in all its facets and the labyrinth of that.’
She said she felt “exposed, vulnerable and scared to put it out there,” but that her experience making it was “delicate, intimate and very deep.”
She said: ‘I knew she wouldn’t exploit me. However you interpret that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt really part of it. We were all very caring, we were all very kind to each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and real at the same time.’
