Nicole Kidman Opens Up a Bit in WHO interview

**AgentOrange** · October 8th, 2012, 07:10 PM

Nicole Kidman says marriage to Tom Cruise was 'strange'

Nicole Kidman says marriage to Tom Cruise was 'strange' | News.com.au

AFTER opening up about post-Cruise depression to Who magazine last week, Nicole Kidman is now revealing what it was like to be married to him.

In the candid interview with Harper's Bazaar, Kidman says after she met her first husband, Tom Cruise, on the set of "Days of Thunder", her world changed dramatically. She started a period she refers to as "fame by association".

"It was like, 'I'm here and I'm clutching onto your arm, and it all feels a little overwhelming and really strange,'" she tells HB. "And I was shy. Deeply shy. I didn't feel comfortable at all. But I felt very comfortable at home."

The actress, 45, says she's now much more content in her skin, thanks in part to her new husband, Keith Urban, and their two daughters, Sunday Rose, four, and Faith Margaret, almost two.

“As you get older … all of that other stuff becomes less important,” she says.

Last week she revealed to Who magazine that she suffered depression after her marriage to Cruise ended.

"I did have a fantastic marriage for a long period. Then when it didn’t work out I had to really dig deep and find my way through depression. I have no regrets about all of it. It was all part of growing up," she told Who.

Kidman also reveals to Harper's Bazaar that she has always had a sticky-out stomach - something the tabloids like to jump on. "I’ve always had a little belly. I mean, now that I’m 45, they don’t say, ‘Oh, she’s pregnant!’ as much.

"But I’ve got skinny arms and legs, and then I’ve got a little belly.”

Kidman, who is forever gracing "best dressed" lists, says when it comes to awards nights, comfort is key.

"I make sure to wear comfortable dresses," she explains, "because I want to be able to go out afterward and, you know, bend."

She also reveals the chartreuse Dior dress she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards - credited with raising the bar for Oscars fashion - will one day be donated to a public institution.

“It’s packed in a box with tissue paper, and it will be donated to a museum,” she shares.

Her other couture pieces are likely to be shared with her daughters.

Read more: Nicole Kidman says marriage to Tom Cruise was 'strange' | News.com.au

**Waterslide** · October 9th, 2012, 12:58 AM

Originally Posted by Novice

You're right

Leaves?

While looking for that picture (of the arm bangle) I found this...

Is she squeezing a zit?

at the zit pic. What the hell are they doing?? And I had no idea those things were stone leaves, that armband is awful!

She also reveals the chartreuse Dior dress she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards - credited with raising the bar for Oscars fashion - will one day be donated to a public institution.

Just as reference.

**WhateverLolaWants** · October 9th, 2012, 11:39 AM

I HATED that dress. I actually like Nic, though she was looking scary there for a little while, but I remember watching the oscars that year and wondering that such a well cut dress would be made in such an awful color(at least against her skin tone)

**MohandasKGanja** · October 9th, 2012, 11:47 AM

I never, ever take Keith or our love for granted and I always keep in my mind that my dream is to grow very old with him.

But not very wrinkled!

**Novice** · October 9th, 2012, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by Waterslide

at the zit pic. What the hell are they doing?? And I had no idea those things were stone leaves, that armband is awful!

Just as reference.

I loved that dress - but it would have looked so much better with her red hair.

Nicole Kidman Interview - Nicole Kidman Quotes on Family and Career - Harper's BAZAAR
That HB article.

n every incarnation – on-screen and off – Nicole Kidman has been nothing less than fearless. Photographs by Terry Richardson. Fashion editor: Mel Ottenberg.

By Laura Brown

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"I attach, I attach so deeply that it's quite scary for me," Nicole Kidman is saying, perched on a couch in a Nashville café. She is talking about her family but also, very possibly, the secret to her success. During a 30-plus-year career she has attached, deeply, to her roles."I'm drawn to the psychology of really interesting, flawed people."
She's sitting here in a vintage white lace dress, a denim jacket, and a floral scarf, back home in Nashville for a few weeks before heading off to Europe for three months to play Grace Kelly in the biopic Grace of Monaco. Now, there's a perception of Nicole that she's regal and somewhat removed, but it's completely wrong. For someone who has been famous for so long, she's strikingly uncynical, easily amused (especially by tales of fashion), exceptionally curious, and utterly Australian. Tell her she's on the cover of Bazaar's Daring Issue and her response is a shy giggle and a "good Lord!"
"Yeah, I'm different than what they think I'm going to be," she says of her perceived hauteur. "I'm reserved. I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert." For instance, Lee Daniels, the director of this fall's pulpy thriller, The Paperboy, was intimidated by her until she reminded him that she was just "a working girl."
Perception versus reality is a strong theme in Nicole's life, which an armchair psychologist could see as falling into three distinct phases: the fierce redhead taking on the world (or the bad guy, with a speargun in Dead Calm), the flashing fame of the Tom Cruise years, and finally coming home—physically and metaphorically—to Keith Urban and their daughters, Sunday Rose, four, and Faith Margaret, almost two. "Totally!" she agrees.
She had landed in New York in 1989, filled with romantic illusions of the theater. "I grew up with the song 'New York, New York,'?" Nicole says. "I just remember getting off the plane and being completely overwhelmed." She started auditioning, once for Ophelia in Hamlet at the Public Theater, directed by Kevin Kline, who she idolized. "I just crammed Ophelia into my brain. I felt very glad I trod the boards in front of Kevin Kline."
But soon enough things would change markedly. Her career began an upswing, and later that year she met Cruise on the set of Days of Thunder. So started the period she now refers to as "fame by association." In those early years, "it was like, 'I'm here and I'm clutching onto your arm, and it all feels a little overwhelming and really strange,' " she recalls. "And I was shy. Deeply shy. I didn't feel comfortable at all. But I felt very comfortable at home."
After the couple split, in 2001, Nicole grew more comfortable still. "I started to do what I've been doing since I was 14, with some gravitas." It paid off: The supernatural thriller The Others was a hit, and she earned an Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. "Having your work be the basis of fame, that's a far more stable feeling."
And it's not like she needs to court the spotlight; even when she's burrowed away in Nashville, it finds her. "I don't really celebrate fame because I get enough attention. I'm willing to step aside. And when I work, I work. Wholeheartedly." Not surprisingly, Nicole has nothing to say publicly on Cruise's divorce from Katie Holmes, characterizing her recent turn back in the gossip mill as "very, very fleeting. I'm not caught up in any of it. It's not really a part of my life."
Her life is, almost wholly, her family. On finding that mythical work-family balance, she says, "I'd love to say that it's easy, but it isn't. I miss them so much when I'm away. And so I limit the amount of time away through no other reason than I just love, I love them. But that's my personality. I get 3 A.M. panics because I'm so attached."
Nicole has been a mother since she was 25, when she and Cruise adopted Isabella, now 19, and, two years later, Connor, 17. "Time goes by so fast now, and having raised two little kids who are now adults and two new children in the world, it's fleeting." However, she has found permanence in her relationship with Urban. The couple, who met in 2005, have been married for six years. "He just gave me confidence," she observes, "through just being very kind to me and understanding me, opening me up to trying things, my sexuality, those sorts of things." After the adventure of Cruise, she characterizes Urban as "more like an ocean; he took me out." She has always appreciated "a bigger, stronger personality; that's what I've been drawn to. I need protection. Everyone wants to feel someone's got their back."
This sense of security has also been a benefit in her day job, particularly on the red carpet. "I find standing and posing for photos very awkward," Nicole says, relating how she sometimes gets body makeup all over Keith's tuxedo. "Red-carpet truths!"
"I make sure to wear comfortable dresses," she explains, "because I want to be able to go out afterward and, you know, bend." Her most famous look is the now legendary chartreuse Dior dress she wore to the Oscars in 1997. "It's packed in a box with tissue paper, and it will be donated to a museum." As for her other couture pieces, "whichever daughter loves clothes more will get dibs on all those. But I keep them in the same way that I'd keep a painting."
At almost five foot eleven and as willowy as a teenager, Nicole has always been the One to dress. She tries gowns on at home, "while Sunday sits on the floor," but when she's at a premiere, all eyes are on her. She doesn't obsess about it, though. "Less as you get older. All of that other stuff becomes less important. Like, I've always had a little belly. I mean, now that I'm 45, they don't say, 'Oh, she's pregnant!' as much. But I've got skinny arms and legs, and then I've got a little belly." But who cares when your legs go for miles? "In high, high shoes, that helps! Like a minx."
Nicole's riskiest choices will always be in front of the camera. The Paperboy has already received reams of press since its premiere at Cannes. And it's controversial, all right. A scene in which her character, Charlotte Bless, a woman who corresponds with men in prison, enjoys a conjugal visit—without touching—with John Cusack is gobsmacking in its fearlessness.
"I didn't meet John until after the film," she remembers. "I never communicated with him in any other way than in character. It made it possible to do that stuff." Does she ever shock herself? "No," she replies. "I don't feel it as me. I'm in the skin of it." And when Keith asks, How was your day, dear? She chuckles, "Keith hasn't been in a bubble his whole life. It takes a lot to shock Keith. I never have."
Nicole will not stop daring. She used to jump out of planes "and do arabesques on the wing. I have a video of it! I used to really love those extreme sensations. I still do. Hmm, is that daring or is that just an extremist?" She does, for some unholy reason, enjoy a night scuba dive. "I find it strangely peaceful, out of my body. It straightens me out."
Her next films to hit screens are the psychological thriller Stoker, and Railway Man with Colin Firth. But now she's off to play Grace, live in Europe for a bit, and "teach the girls French." Then it's back to Australia for Christmas. Because as much as Nicole has adventured, publicly and privately ("I would hate to go back and think, I wish I'd been a little braver"), she knows the joys of coming home

Read more: Nicole Kidman Interview - Nicole Kidman Quotes on Family and Career - Harper's BAZAAR

**Laurent** · October 9th, 2012, 01:24 PM

I loved that chartreuse dress too, but I agree with Nov that it would've looked better with red hair, and those shoes she wore with it are 4,000 kinds of fug.