Q&A: Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman discusses bone disease, Bacall and the importance of Wagner in her controversial forthcoming film.

Nov  1 2004

There’s a mesmerising scene in ‘Birth’ when Jonathan Glazer’s camera lingers on Kidman’s face for several minutes as her character, Anna, watches a staging of Wagner’s ‘The Ring’ cycle with her fiancé Joseph (Danny Huston) and is gradually overwhelmed by emotion. Kidman delivers an impressive performance in a film that is also marked by good turns from Huston, Lauren Bacall and the young Cameron Bright.

Did you hear Wagner’s music as you played that key scene?
Yes, I did. By that stage I was so into my character, Anna, that I was able to just run with it. What’s unusual about Jonathan is that he allows you to do that; in most films, that kind of scene would be cut.

You cut up your hair for this film...
Yes, but I don’t really like to discuss anything in terms of how I construct a character, emotionally or physically. With ‘The Hours’, I went into detail about that and I think it ended up distracting from the film. It was very destructive: everyone was making jokes about ‘the nose’. The nose, the nose, the nose, the nose...
And you think: hold on, it’s not only about a nose. If only that hadn’t become an issue. Meryl Streep reminded me that Laurence Olivier would wear a different nose in every different film. It was a given that that’s what you did as an actor. But now we’re so caught up with how an actor looks.

Do you still plan to work with Lars von Trier again?
I’m going to go back, yeah...

When?
I’m not sure, we haven’t distinguished the actual time, but yes, I will... We’ll see.

After ‘Dogville’, you gave up the chance to play the same character in three films for von Trier.
I was doing ‘The Stepford Wives’, and I couldn’t leave the country at the particular time that Lars wanted me to. I have two kids, I couldn’t do it. And I will choose life over work.

Can you see yourself having a career as long as Lauren Bacall’s?
I don’t know if I have the resilience. Lauren’s strong. But I don’t think I have that. Everyone wants a piece of you in the media, does that get you down? Yes, but it comes and it goes, right? It’s so transient. I think that’s the great thing about getting older; you realise there’s no point in staying up all night worrying about things. There’s so many other things that are important.

I think the latest press story was that you had a serious bone disease...
I don’t know where that’s coming from! It was something about osteoporosis... I don’t even know what that is. I guess I don’t have anything going on in my love-life right now, so something has to be written, no?

Interview: Dave Calhoun

‘Birth’ opens on Friday November 5.

A full review of 'Birth' is available online and in Time Out London November 3-10 2004. Issue No. 1785.