Twenty-five years have gone by since Stanley Kubrick’s final motion picture, “Eyes Wide Shut,” was released after his death. Nicole Kidman recalls the sexually charged drama and its creation with fondness. Together with her ex-husband Tom Cruise, she portrayed a wealthy married couple in New York City who were going through a difficult time. The storyline seems prophetic given their 2001 divorce.
When Kidman was asked what aspect of herself she contributed to the role during the filming of the movie during a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, she replied, “My boldness.I’m quite up-front and Alice becomes quite up-front, particularly when she was stoned … although that wasn’t me when I was stoned. I was just naturally like that. Up-front.”
Despite Kubrick’s notoriety as an infamous stickler, Kidman remarked that the iconic director encouraged her risqueness. “The great thing about him is that he told us, ‘Don’t put me on a pedestal.’ That’s the No. 1 rule,” Kidman said. “Because when we came to his house, we were like, ‘Oh, my God. The great Stanley Kubrick.’ And that kind of thinking hinders the creative process. He didn’t want sycophants. He told us to throw ideas out. And everyone has to wait at least 10 seconds before they say no to an idea. I heard that, and I’m in my 20s, and I’m like, ‘OK. It’s on.’ It was experimental, like making student films in Australia.”
When asked how Kubrick influenced her acting, Kidman didn’t know how to respond; he only said he wouldn’t stop until he understood. She believed she had his confidence in that regard, and the remainder was about having faith in her nefarious side.
“I suppose that was why he cast me. That mischief, that provocative nature, he found that out and it got more imbued into Alice,” Kidman told LA Times. “The scene where I drop the dress … that was me. That wasn’t written. That was my dress from my closet. ‘This is how I take off the dress, Stanley.’ Because I had a lot of clothes, we weren’t paying to buy clothes. And Stanley had come over and I was showing him all these beautiful dresses. That’s how that happened.”