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NICOLE KIDMAN BIOGRAPHY |
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| An actress who was relegated to playing
decorative parts for years and was known primarily for her real-life
role as the wife of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman spent the latter
half of the 1990s finally earning the critical respect she
deserved. Standing a willowy 5'11'' and sporting one of
Hollywood's most distinctive heads of red hair, the Australian
actress first came to the attention of a wide American audience
with her role opposite Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990), but it
was not until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in Gus Van
Sant's 1995 To Die For that she began to be regarded as a
performer of considerable range and talent. Although many assume
that Kidman is a native of Australia, she was actually born in
Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967. Her family, who lived on the
island because of a research project Kidman's father, a
biochemist, was involved with, subsequently moved to Washington,
D.C. for the next three years. After her father's project
reached completion, Kidman and her family -- which also included
her mother, a nurse/educator, and a younger sister -- moved to
her parents' native Australia. Raised in the upper-middle-class
Sydney suburb of Longueville, she grew up with a love of the
arts, particularly dance and theatre. Trained in ballet from the
age of three, Kidman made her acting debut in a nativity play
when she was six. By the age of ten, she was studying acting in
drama school, and she went on to train at the St. Martin's Youth
Theatre in Melbourne and at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre. An
awkward, gawky teenager who was teased relentlessly because of
her height, Kidman took refuge in the theatre, and she landed
her first professional role at the age of 14, when she starred
in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a group of kids who
band together with an Aborigine to find their stolen horse. This
was followed by a role in another adventure film, BMX Bandits
(1983), and a number of TV movies. Kidman's first breakthrough
came when she was asked to star in Vietnam, a miniseries
directed by John Duigan; the actress won positive notices for
her portrayal of an awkward 1960s schoolgirl who matures into an
idealistic 24-year-old Vietnam war protester. She also won an
American agent, something that opened quite a few doors of
opportunity. In 1989, Kidman got another major break when she
was tapped to star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm. A psychological
thriller about a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are
terrorized by a young man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy
Zane), the film helped to establish the then-19-year-old Kidman
as an actress of considerable mettle. That same year her
reputation was further boosted by her starring performance in
the made-for-TV Bangkok Hilton, which cast her as a young woman
incarcerated in a Thai prison on false drug smuggling charges.
By now a rising star in Australia, Kidman began earning
recognition across the Pacific. In 1989, she was picked by Tom
Cruise for a starring role in her first American feature, Tony
Scott's Days of Thunder (1990). The film, a testosterone-saturated
drama about a racecar driver (Cruise), cast Kidman as the
neurologist who falls in love with him. A sizable hit, it had
the added advantage of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she
married in December of 1990. Following a role as Dustin
Hoffman's moll in Billy Bathgate (1991), and a supporting turn
as a snotty boarding school senior in Flirting (also 1991), John
Duigan's wonderful and criminally little-seen coming-of-age
drama, Kidman collaborated with Cruise on their second film
together, Far and Away (1992). Despite their onscreen pairing
and some gorgeous cinematography, the film got only a lukewarm
reception, and Kidman's subsequent projects, My Life and Malice
(both 1993), were similarly disappointing. Batman Forever
(1995), in which she played the hero's love interest, fared
somewhat better, but it did little in the way of establishing
Kidman as a serious actres. |
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