This just-turned, doesn’t-look-50-year-old stunner from down under is a total class act. Nicole Kidman is extraordinarily talented (she’s won numerous awards including Golden Globes and an Academy Award), down to earth, charismatic, and just downright gorgeous inside and out. She also shows no sign of slowing down, even with a life of incredible highs and remarkable lows (like her very public divorce from Tom Cruise). Despite these ups and downs, Kidman just keeps living with an open heart —find out how in the following 43 facts about Nicole Kidman.
The biggest learning experience someone can have in their life? Kidman says it's "being in love."
You have to wonder how her former boyfriends and suitors feel about that. On the one hand, it does sound like you must have had an impact on her. Then again, someone referring to you as a "learning experience" doesn't exactly hit the ears as a compliment. More like how you would describe a test you failed in 11th grade.
Plus, she can sing. Kidman has quite the set of pipes, and did all of her own singing in Moulin Rouge! alongside co-star Ewan McGregor.
If you've seen the movie, you know just how impressive that is. And if you haven't? Well now you've got another reason to check it out... as if seeing the man who played Obi-Wan Kenobi belting out show-tunes wasn't enough of a draw.
You can catch Kidman singing a Frank and Nancy Sinatra duet with British pop star Robbie Williams in "Somethin’ Stupid." It was a Christmas-time chart topper in 2001 that everyone was singing along to in the UK.
The woman is talented!
Standing tall at 5' 10.5", Kidman was already 5'9" when she was only 13 years old, quickly earning the her nickname “Stalky” in high school for being taller and lankier than all her classmates.
Odd, though, that she peaked so quickly. If someone is already 5'9" when they're 13, you kind of expect them to be the size of Yao Ming when they're an adult. Too bad: she could have been a basketball player.
Kidman, tall glass of water that she is, stood 4 inches taller than ex-husband Tom Cruise. She was rarely ever seen wearing heels when she went out on the town with him.
Good for them!
Just because she's an incredibly talented actress, singer, and all-around performer, doesn't mean Nicole limits herself to the stage and screen...
In 1994, Kidman became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and 10 years laters she was honored by the United Nations as a “Citizen of the World.”
Perhaps Kidman’s success comes from her painfully shy childhood and her ability to create a world of her own, an ability that still spills into her adult life and her acting talents. She still doesn’t like walking into a crowded restaurant by herself or going to a party on her own. She has even been labeled as an “ice queen” while on the red carpet.
Often we see those who have achieved massive success and fame as infallible. After all, we only see what they look like today, with the entire world calling their name.
But often, their stories involve a fair amount of hardship and struggle. Case in point: Kidman also suffered from a stutter as a child, but took the necessary steps and lessons to overcome it.
At the tender age of three, Kidman’s parents enrolled her in ballet. It was later on, in her high school years, that she her natural talent for acting emerged.
Funny: my parents put me in piano lessons when I was little... but I'm still waiting for the talent that will make an internationally recognized superstar to make itself known.
Kidman was first inspired to become an actress when she saw Margaret Hamilton perform as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Kidman has said that she would also love to play the Wicked Witch one day.
Cruise saw Kidman (and subsequently became infatuated) in her first major motion picture, the Aussie film Dead Calm. Cruise then talked his manager into flying her overseas to co-star with him in Days of Thunder.
He flew her out to see him! Now that is an eye-catching maneuver.
If you think your last break-up was bad, just be thankful it didn't happen to the light of 20,000 flashbulbs in your face, or to the tune of a thousand paparazzi-photographers yelling your name.
Every newspaper covered the shocking news of Kidman’s divorce with Cruise. Kidman admits it was a very difficult time for her, and she had to move in with long-time friend and fellow Aussie Naomi Watts, who helped her get back on her feet.
If Kidman could travel in time and give advice to her 13 year old self, it would be: "be happy." Conversely, if she could give advice to herself in 13 years it would be: "I told you so."
Interesting.
Kidman was born in Hawaii, and her Hawaiian name is Hokulani—a name she shares with a baby elephant born at the Honolulu Zoo around the same time that she herself was born.
Dedicated actress that she is, Kidman wore a corset to the extreme in an effort to get her waist down to 18 inches for Moulin Rouge! During the process, she actually broke a rib.
Kidman’s now-husband, country music singer Keith Urban, waited four months before asking her to go out on a date. She mistook his shyness for not noticing her, to which he said, “Yes, I did, but I just didn't let on.”
Right after her marriage to Urban (four months to be exact), Kidman called an intervention, urging Urban to check himself into rehab for substance abuse. Urban made the decision to get clean and sober up because he didn't want to lose his wife, agreeing that this was the moment to do the right thing.
What’s was best part about farm life in the Kidman-Urban luxurious rustic retreat just outside of Nashville, Tennessee? Kidman says it was the "simplicity, the air and peace.” Oh, and they had chickens, black Angus cows, and six alpacas. The power couple put the property up for sale in late 2017.
After Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner saw Kidman perform in the Broadway play The Blue Room, he desperately sought her out to pose nude for his magazine.
That's... a big compliment, I guess? I mean it's nice to know that someone thinks you're beautiful... But it also means he considers you the sort of person who would consider taking their clothes off for the camera.
NY daily news
At the age of 17, when Kidman’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kidman put her dreams of becoming an actress on hold to take up work as a massage therapist to help her mom with physical therapy while in recovery.
Kidman has inherited her mother’s affinity for antique clothing picked up from the flea market. She loves 1940s lace and florals, and collects vintage clothes.
The one talent Kidman wishes she could possess? The ability to sing opera exquisitely.
I guess she'll have to consol herself with only having the ability to sing every other genre at a world-class level.
Pinterest
Kidman is ambidextrous. Naturally left handed, she taught herself how to write with her right hand for her Oscar-winning role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
Kidman says she keeps one thing from her childhood that's very special to her. But it's not a doll or a blanket—she says it’s her curiosity.
Kidman’s favorite color, in her own poetic words, is “the bluest of blue.”
Conversely, her least favourite is “bright orange.” Not a halloween fan, Mrs Kidman isn't.
Though she herself is a fashion icon in her own right, Kidman’s personal fashion idols are all of the women Irving Penn photographed during his long-standing fashion career, most notably his wife Lisa Fonssagrives.
The trend Kidman hopes doesn’t exist 100 years from now is texting.
Amen, sister.
If Kidman could have an artist paint her portrait, it would be by American turn-of-the-century artist John Singer Sargent. He was the leading portrait painter of his generation, and was best known for his luxurious Edwardian style.
Kidman says her spirit animal is an otter. We agree. Just like her, they're cute, funny, and very intelligent.
If she couldn’t be the award-winning actress that she is, Kidman would want to be a scientist able to cure something very important, like cancer–but only if acting were no longer an option for her.
Like most people, the superpower Kidman wishes she could have is the power to fly.
Kidman loves being a mother. As she says, “…the best part about being a mom is everything. The love. The joy. The purpose." Yet the hardest part about being a mom is knowing she "won’t always be around to take care of them.”
Kidman’s ideal coffee date with a historical figure would be with Eleanor Roosevelt. She says she would love drink a coffee with extra froth and lots of chocolate sprinkles with the former First Lady.
Kidman’s favorite food is homemade warm bread. Her least favorite? Ham.
Kidman's a bit of a foodie—she says the best thing to have on pizza is truffles.
Appearances can be deceiving. The most surprising thing Kidman learned as an actress is that the job is 99% hard work and only 1% glamour. It's still a lot of glamour though, right? At least when you look as good in a gown as Kidman does.
Mr. Snuffleupagus, the fun loving, big-bodied, and long-eye-lashed muppet from Sesame Street, is Kidman’s favorite character from the children's TV show.
While shooting near or far, for long or just a short spurt, the one thing Kidman is always sure to have with her on set is her pillow.
Kidman has read a lot of scripts in her day, from drama to romantic comedy and everything in between. These days, though, she says that when she reads scripts, she’s simply looking for laughs.
Nothing wrong with a little danger. Some of the most dangerous things Kidman has ever done in her life include jumping out of a plane, racing around a car track at 200 mph, and scuba diving with sharks.
Although fearless in other aspects of her life, Kidman suffers from Lepidopterophobia, a fear of butterflies and other winged insects.
Nicole had her "Star" placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.
Why, you ask?
Nicole has won a staggering number of awards. On her shelf, she has five Golden Globe Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmys. and an Oscar. She was also the first actress from Australia to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
Scientology was blamed for her divorce from Tom Cruise, but very little was known about the split’s awful details until former Scientologists revealed that Cruise and the Church of Scientology actually had Kidman's phone tapped during their marriage. Cruise and Kidman’s two children also reportedly refuse to speak to their mother since the divorce, and have called her a “Suppressive Person.” Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP, is a term that is used by the Church of Scientology to describe the "antisocial personalities." According to Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, SPs make up about 2.5% of the population. Thanks for that, L. Ron.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
My mom never told me how her best friend died. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery.
Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.
I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life.
Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history.
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