By Nadine Whitney

Australians call her “Our Nic.” She’s the girl in “BMX Bandits” or the face of a popular hair dye campaign in the early 1980s. She’s best friends with Naomi Watts who played a girl who turns down a date with Tom Cruise in a 1990 Lamb roast ad.

She was the face of television shows that kept the nation glued to the screen – the series “Vietnam” written by John Duigan and George Miller. She was the young wife of Sam Neill terrorised at sea by Billy Zane in Philip Noyce’s “Dead Calm.” Then in what seemed like mere minutes she was working with Ron Howard and Tony Scott and having a role in “BillyBathgate” and being the person married to Tom Cruise. Our Nic was Hollywood Royalty. A career defining pivot playing the fame obsessed weather presenter in Gus van Sant’s “To DieFor” soon followed.

Her co-stars in John Duigan’s “Flirting” included Noah Taylor and Thandiwe Newton. Thandiwe Newton starred with Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible: II.” Noah Taylor worked with Tom in the Cameron Crowe version of Amenábar’s “Open Your Eyes” (Vanilla Sky). Nicole went on to star in Amenábar’s period Gothic, “The Others.” Drawing a Venn diagram around Nicole and Tom gets complex, especially as they played a couple disintegrating in real time in Stanley Kubrick’s final film “Eyes Wide Shut”. Later, Nicole would star alongside Kirsten Dunst who came to fame with her role as Claudia in the Tom Cruise starring “Interview with a Vampire” by Neil Jordan. She worked with Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled” and is a long-time supporter of Jane Campion who gave her the starring role in “The Portrait of a Lady.” Later, Nicole would add a producer credit to Campion’s risky “Inthe Cut” and her television series “Top of the Lake.” Circling around, Kirsten Dunst was nominated for an Academy Award for Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”

I was asked the question what do you make of Nicole being only the first Australian to win?

I am not surprised she is the first. Just breaking down the stats on who has won the award means you can notice that firstly it skews towards men. Only eleven women have won the award. Of those eleven women only three have been from outside of America; Julie Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor, and now Nicole. The standard for the award is “Enrichment of American Culture.” I would argue that Peter Weir is most certainly a candidate at some point. However, the award has a gender equity issue. Something else to note is that only three Black Americans have won the award – Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Sidney Poitier. Yet siblings Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty both have awards as well as Henry and Jane Fonda, and Kirk and Michael Douglas.

I am in no way suggesting that anyone with an award doesn’t deserve it. Just that the industry moves slowly. People you would expect to be on the list aren’t there. Fred Astaire is there, Gene Kelly is there, but Audrey Hepburn isn’t. Some of that has to do with the “test of time” rule which was brought in. 

Nicole has been working since she was a young teen and hasn’t slowed down. Like Lillian Gish and Elizabeth Taylor, her career spans decades. She isn’t the youngest women recipient – Meryl Streep (her co-star in “The Hours”) was 54 when she was awarded.

Nicole is very much a self-made star. She is also incredibly generous. It was Nicole who brought her best friend Naomi Watts to the attention of Hollywood. If Nicole is attached to something it happens. She is also a producer and quite loyal to people who treat her well. She also has the wisdom to walk away when she must. Nicole is an entertainment giant. People remember her from all eras of her career and there is a Nicole for everyone.

Nicole takes risks that other major stars would avoid. She has been in massive blockbusters – in fact she’s at the point now where she is quite literally playing Queens. But for every Chase Meridian (“Batman Forever”) or Queen Atlanna (“Aquaman”) there is her ability to go into small and somewhat dangerous roles. For example, playing Diane Arbus in “Fur.” Or coming back to Australia to do a tiny film like Kim Farrant’s “Strangerland.” Working with Lars von Trier in “Dogville.” It is her ability to go against the grain of what people expect from her that makes her a star. 

Nicole doesn’t turn her nose up at smaller parts. She will work in ensemble dramas. She won her first Academy award for Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours” – an ensemble drama which included Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. She isn’t afraid to get gritty or play someone you don’t like. She aged herself in Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer.” She has played a femme fatale in “Malice” and “Birthday Girl,” etc. She can do broad comedy as well as heart breaking roles.

She has worked with both male and female directors across her career – something a lot of major actresses haven’t started doing until they felt it was a safe bet. Not only Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola, but Norah Ephron and Mimi Leder. As a producer she brought Miles Teller into the spotlight in “The Rabbit Hole” – this time working in a straight drama about a grieving mother with outré director John Cameron Mitchell (Ironically it was her former co-star Julianne Moore who beat her to the Oscar with her role in “Still Alice.”) Loyalty to John Cameron Mitchell meant a punk-rock role in “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” with Elle Fanning whom she had worked with in “The Beguiled.” Speaking of “The Beguiled,” she also starred with Colin Farrell in Yorgos Lanthimos’ extremely dark comedy, “The Killing of aSacred Deer” which also brought Barry Keoghan to everyone’s attention. She played Mia Wasikowska’s mother in Park Chan-Wook’s Hitchcockian thriller “Stoker.”

Within all those roles she still had time to come back to Australia and star in Kim Farrant’s indie film “Strangerland.” She also starred in Joel Edgerton’s “Boy Erased” with Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges and played Dev Patel’s adoptive mother in Garth Davis’ “Lion.” She has worked in period pieces with Colin Firth. She has been in a thriller directed by Sydney Pollak. She was in Johnathan Glazer’s divisive drama “Birth.” And, lest we forget… she played Santine in Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!” with Ewan McGregor and in his period epic “Australia” with Hugh Jackman.

There really isn’t a role she won’t take on. Some people would balk at playing Grace Kelly, Martha Gellhorn, Gertrude Lawrence, or Virginia Woolf. They wouldn’t attempt Lucille Ball and perhaps find playing Gretchen Carlson daunting. They certainly would think twice about being in “The Paperboy.”

She can sing and dance – as evidenced in “Moulin Rouge!”and Rob Marshall’s “Nine”and “Prom” and her voice work in George Miller’s “Happy Feet.” In Anthony Minghella’s Civil War drama, “Cold Mountain” she worked with Renee Zellweger and Jude Law. She worked with Noah Baumbach in “Margot at the Wedding,” was Sandra Bullock’s witchy sister in “Practical Magic” – she became a walking doll in Frank Oz’s remake of “The Stepford Wives” and played Alexander Skarsgård’s wife in the television series “Big Little Lies” and then his mother in Robert Egger’s “The Northman.” And who could forget her villainous turn in “Paddington” by Paul King?

Nicole Mary Kidman, Order of Australia. Oscar winner, BAFTA winner, Golden Globe, Emmy winner – she’s ours, she’s yours – she is an icon and an ally. And, in case you forget, she’s also quite tall.

Nicole is where the magic happens.