I continue to be impressed with Nicole Kidman because the woman does not take the easy road in terms of her parts. She arrived in Cannes with two very different films — Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy where she plays a character reminiscent of her character in To Die For, and Hemingway and Gellhorn in which she plays reporter Martha Gellhorn.

The LA Times got some great quotes from her that are worth sharing:

I’m not interested in being safe, and I’m willing to fail because of that…I feel very ashamed when I do something safe.

And you know, she has had some failures, but she is so much more interesting because of those.

On playing trailblazing reporter Martha Gellhorn: (FYI — The HBO film airs on Monday night)

I don’t get to read many scripts that are going to be made that are driven by a woman…She’s a woman who sacrifices a lot, who doesn’t compromise, for a force she feels inside her, which is to tell the stories of people around her.

A revelation. One of the top tiered, Oscar-winning actresses doesn’t get to read scripts that are driven by women. How is that possible? If she’s not reading them then that means they are not getting to the right place. I know in my gut there are some great women centric scripts, That statement depressed me.

On growing older

When you get to this age, I want to breathe, I can go with the flow of it…There’s still a fire that ignites in me creatively, but I know how to put it out for a while…As you get older, you can lose that abandonment…I want to stay in that place of ‘Try it, why not.’ I very much still try to maintain that artistically.

Some of the more interesting quotes I have read in some time.

Cannes 2012: Nicole Kidman is ‘not interested in being safe’ (LA Times)