2017 saw Nicole Kidman working with two renowned women directors: Jane Campion for “Top of the Lake: China Girl” and Sofia Coppola for “The Beguiled.” Her upcoming projects include Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me,” a comedic drama following intertwined love stories, and Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer,” a crime drama where she’ll play an LAPD detective. It’s no coincidence that the Oscar winner is starring in so many women-helmed projects. The actress has pledged to work with a female director every 18 months, a decision she discussed with Miller in a recent Glamour feature.
“As an actor you’re only as good as the things you’re offered. And there just weren’t any women offering me things. So when you dissect that, you realize there aren’t women offering you things because they don’t have the opportunities,” Kidman explained. “I work to raise money for women’s cancers; I use my voice for violence against women. And so I was like, ‘I need to be part of the movement that will, hopefully, change the statistics in my field.’”
The “Big Little Lies” actress emphasized that talking about the issue isn’t enough. “Because, to be an advocate, you have to actually put things into action,” she observed. “It’s like, ‘OK, Rebecca. You’re making a movie? Let’s go.’ ‘OK, Karyn Kusama’ — I’m working with her next — ‘we may not have an enormous budget, but let’s go do it. I’ll get down in the trenches with you.’ My nine-year-old daughter wants to be a director right now. Her whole attitude is ‘The world’s my oyster.’ She doesn’t realize that it’s actually not.”
Kidman won an Oscar for her performance in “The Hours” and earned nods for “Lion,” “Rabbit Hole,” and “Moulin Rouge!” She just picked up Emmy Awards for starring in and producing “Big Little Lies,” HBO’s adaptation of Liane Moriarity’s bestselling novel of the same name. She played a talented lawyer who sacrifices her career to be a stay-at-home mom under pressure from her abusive husband. A second season has yet to be confirmed.
“The idea that women and men are equal is a part of my DNA,” Kidman recently wrote in Net-a-Porter’s Porter Magazine. In an open letter addressed to her “3.5 billion strong and beautiful sisters,” she said that she prides herself on portraying “strong, independent women that went against the expectations of society,” and it’s been her “driving force to make it in an industry that is still largely run by men.”
