Nicole Kidman has revealed that her beloved mother has died, just hours before she was due to win the best actress award for her role in Babygirl at the Venice Film Festival, which ended on Saturday.
The 57-year-old actress, who plays a powerful New York business executive who begins a risky romance with her much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not in attendance.
Instead, its director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, revealing that Nicole’s mother died while she was in Venice.
The statement said: ‘I am in shock and need to speak 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 between life and art is heartbreaking and my heart is broken.”
Nicole Kidman has revealed 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 ended on Saturday.
‘I’m in shock and I have to go with my family, but this award is for her’
In an interview with the Fresh Air podcast in January 2022, Nicole briefly discussed her mother’s health issues.
She said they managed to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales after hours, where they saw the Matisse: Life and Spirit exhibition, describing it as a “soothing balm”.
“We’re here primarily to take care of my mother and have her surrounded by her grandchildren,” he said.
“Luckily, yesterday, even though Omicron is wreaking havoc on this country, we were able to take her to the gallery after hours and show her the Matisse exhibit, which, coming from a mother who raised me in the art world, was a comforting balm. Matisse was a comforting balm last night.”
Later in the interview, Nicole said she felt privileged to be able to see the world through her mother’s eyes and described it as “very beneficial.”
“I’m in the place where I’m being given the opportunity to see the world, because of how close we are, my mother is giving me the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of an 81-year-old woman,” she explained.
“That’s very beneficial now, because she’s very conscious. She has all the faculties of the brain available, so she hasn’t lost anything. She hasn’t lost any memory, which is fascinating, and she’s extremely bright.
“She’s giving me access, because she’s also very direct and very honest, and so I’m having access to the world through her eyes, my mother’s eyes, so a part of me almost at 80.”
He added: “It’s their perspective, obviously. There are many different perspectives of 80-year-olds, but it’s their perspective and their particular path, but I’m taking it in and learning from it.”
In an interview with the Fresh Air podcast in January 2022, Nicole briefly discussed her mother’s health issues.
During the Venice Film Festival, Nicole admitted she felt “vulnerable” while filming multiple masturbation scenes, as well as a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship for the new erotic thriller.
Rising British star Harris Dickinson has a career-changing role as Samuel, the intern who senses that his boss Kidman, the CEO of a tech company, wants to be dominated.
Nicole hasn’t done anything like this since the dreamy erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut with then-husband Tom Cruise 25 years ago.
She said an intimacy coordinator and a closed set had been vital 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 movie is obviously about sex, but it’s also about desire, about your inner thoughts, about secrets, about marriage, about truth, about power, about consent.
“It’s a woman’s story and I hope it’s a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her eyes. It’s a script by Halina (Reijn), she wrote it and directed it and that made it unique, that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was something very close to our shared instincts and very, very liberating.”
Director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, revealing that Nicole’s mother died while she was in Venice.
The 57-year-old actress, who plays a powerful New York business executive who begins a risky romance with her much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not in attendance.
She added: “I don’t think there’s any judgement attached (to the character). It’s up to each person to react to Romy and the way she behaves.”
‘My connection to this is that I want to examine human beings, women, on screen, to explore what it means to be human in all the facets of that and the labyrinth of that.’
She said she was “exposed, vulnerable and scared to give it to the world” but that her experience of doing so had been “delicate, intimate and very profound.”
She said: “I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me. Regardless of how anyone interprets it, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt a part of it. We all looked out for each other so much, we were so kind to each other and we helped each other out. I felt very authentic, protected and at the same time real.”