“Honored to be on this list with the greats,” she said. Nicole Kidman before entering the Dolby Theater to receive a precious tribute from the American Film Institute, one that only the most iconic actors and directors receive. Anyone can have a Star on the Walk of Fame, but only 49 have received the AFI (American Film Institute) lifetime achievement award. From Bette Davis and Orson Welles, until Jack Nicholson and Jane Fonda, from Alfred Hitchcock to Meryl Streep. It was precisely Streep who passed the torch to him.
On Saturday, April 27, the actress Moulin Rouge made history becoming the first Australian to receive that honor. She was born in Hawaii, where her parents resided on student visas, but she grew up in Sydney.
Nicole Kidman entered the theater where the Oscar is awarded annually like a goddessslinky in a sequined gold Balenciaga dress.
She brought her two teenage daughters, Sunday Rose (15) and Faith Margaret (12), to the red carpet for the first time, flanked by her husband, the Australian singer Keith Urban.
His sister was there and so was his close friend. Naomi Watts. Other famous Australian colleagues congratulated her by video: Cate Blanchett, Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman.
Connection and experimentation, two axes
His entrance was accompanied by the music of Diamonds are a woman’s best friendsof the movie Gentlemen prefer her blonde. an ode to Marilyn Monroe.
Nicole is not that type of woman who likes frivolities. Although she confesses that she agreed to advertise the Chanel N 5 perfume because of her adoration of the designer Karl Lagerfeld.
“Although my mother was a feminist, she always dressed me like a doll,” she remembers.
But his roles have always been more complicated, dark, difficult, showing a complex personality very open to experimenting. “I am fascinated by connecting with human beings and the great existential questions that orbit around us,” she says.
In her Hollywood debut, she was cast as a neurosurgeon hired to treat Trueno, the crashed car racer played by Tom Cruise. Nicole mentioned his name in passing in a previously recorded speech.
He discovered her, in 1999 he offered her to act in Thunder days and that same year he married her. They would divorce in 2001 due to alleged differences in their treatment of Scientology, although she always kept a low profile and never gave reasons. Their last work together would be for Stanley Kubrick, in Eyes wide Shut.
Two years later, flying alone, in 2003, Nicole Kidman won her first Oscar playing the writer Virginia Woolf in The hours. “By a nose,” he joked. Denzel Washington opening that envelope. Meryl Streep, who worked with her on that film, also made a joke that her makeup artist had added her nose to Nicole.
Nicole Kidman in “The Hours”, with her famous false nose. For that Stephen Daldry film she won an Oscar.Meryl’s praise, Keith Urban’s confession
“They always joke that I am the most talented actress, but I can assure you that I found real talent in Nicole. The way she gives of herself, the discipline of her, the passion of her, all those beautiful women that she has played, she is a true gem,” Meryl said.
Although it was her husband Keith Urban who gave real excitement to the night remembering how Four months into their marriage, he had to go into rehab for 3 months.. “There were many voices that could have taken her away from me, including hers,” said the singer, “but Nic stayed and that shows all the love she is capable of giving. And here we are together, 18 years later.”
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman on the red carpet at the Met Gala. They have been together for 18 years now. Photo: EFEIn addition to thanking her family for their support, Nicole Kidman also named each of the directors she worked with, including those who helped her earn 5 Oscar nominations.
“Thank you for making my childhood dream come true and for inviting me to be part of this film family. I would like to continue doing what I do, I wish I was at the beginning, at least I hope to be in the middle of my career, I cross my fingers.”
