Nicole Kidman

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re going to be thinking and rethinking about actors that I have personally called ‘awful’ in the past and seeing why I was wrong, and actors whom I called ‘great’ in the past and seeing why I was wrong. Hopefully, this helps you to identify how your opinion can change as a human being and how, through research and observation, you can make a more informed conclusion even if your previous one was the entire opposite. Film and literature is all about changing our opinions and if our opinions remain static throughout our study then we probably haven’t had the full experience of the subject at hand. We need to be open to change in our thought processes and really, that’s what criticism and theory is about. If we start by opening our opinions up to change on particular base level types, then we can slowly build these up to see how we could possibly change our opinions on a grand scale. I will start by rethinking actors and actresses I have either previously thought as not very good at their job or very good at their job and will be arguing the opposite; demonstrating my change of opinion. So, if you see the ‘rethinking…’ line in my title, you can bet it is a part of this series.

Nicole Kidman

I grew up loving Nicole Kidman because I was a huge fan of "Batman Forever" (please, we're talking about the same era as Tamagotchi, the Nokia 6600 and the X Factor themed mobile phones). I was just coming out of that phase of Tim Burton's Batman films (after Keaton/Nicholson because you don't grow out of that one) and I was starting to see Nicole Kidman in other films such as "The Others" which my older brother showed me and "Moulin Rouge" which I didn't think was brilliant but it definitely wasn't terrible. I thought Nicole Kidman was one of the greatest actresses of my childhood, but as I grew older and as she released more films, I was pretty disillusioned with her.

Note: Nicole Kidman seems like a lovely human being and this is no attack on her character, just her acting and choice of movies that I had become more and more distant from as I entered my teens and late teens.

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't actually like the film "Cold Mountain", everyone seems to think I did because my favourite actor of all time and childhood hero has an appearance in there (that's Cillian Murphy for those of you who don't know). Then came the film "Australia" which was pretty much a disaster to the point that even the lead actor Hugh Jackman made fun of it at the Oscars. Then came "Nine" which was that film where I thought Sir Daniel Day-Lewis ran out of money because whatever that was, it would be really great if nobody ever did it again.

But it was another performance that really turned me off her.

When I was a child, my mother would get me to read a lot. One of the books I loved as a kid was "Northern Lights" and that entire series by Philip Pullman. When they made the film "The Golden Compass" my entire family was so excited. But the film would ultimately be a complete let-down with Nicole Kidman playing an incredibly cliché Ms. Couter. Between this and "Before I Go to Sleep" - we can tell that adaptations of literature probably aren't Nicole Kidman's strong suit.

Her role in "Lion" again was cliché and very 'white saviour' to the point that I pretty much lost all of my respect for her as an actress. I was so disappointed, I kind of felt like I had been betrayed by the woman who once played the comic-book adaptation doctor and was once a great woman of many talents. It seems as she got older, her roles became more and more narrow and she was trying to play the youthful roles whilst also trying to prove herself as a major Hollywood playing card and modern legend. She didn't realise that she was already a legend before all of this random crap. She basically ruined it for herself.

All in all, I think she has pretty much killed her chances of being remembered as a Hollywood legend because of her poor choices in film. But, I do think she will ultimately be remembered as a nice, down to earth woman who isn't stuck up her own ass like many actresses are today.

Thanks for joining me for this week of "Rethinking Actors..." and watch out for we may return with it soon...