Nicole Kidman sat down with The Hollywood Reporter during her THR cover shoot and talks about Meryl Streep being her role model, her commitment to female directors and working with Halina Reijn for 'Babygirl.' Plus, she offers advice for young women.
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00:00Some of the best advice I've given is go easy on yourself, Nicole, go easy,
00:04because I'm probably my harshest critic.
00:19I've always said Meryl Streep has been such a beacon of how to do it all,
00:26how to have children, and how to have a career, and how to have a...
00:34I think, you know, I remember the speech she gave, I think it was a graduation speech,
00:39where she talked about the pursuit of excellence, and that was always, I think,
00:45when you set out to be perfect, or try to be the best, or any of those things,
00:50I don't think that's the right advice. The advice is, pursuit of excellence is extremely important,
00:57and then you're going to fail, and you're going to have to get back up again,
01:01but you can keep moving forward. And so I had so many voices and women who were a part of that,
01:10picking me back up, and saying, you can do it, you can keep moving forward.
01:15There's so many times during a long career where it ebbs and flows, and it's in the
01:24down times, it's in the ebbs when you go, that's when I actually need the support.
01:31Anyone can be your friend when it's all going well, but it's when the chips are down,
01:37when the people step in. That came out of a conversation with Meryl, strangely enough,
01:43it was a night after, I think we'd been to the Academy Awards, and we all kind of went,
01:48well, we're not really going to go out now to a party, we're just going to, well, do you want to
01:53go grab a bite? And so we all went, and we were sitting around the table, and we were talking
02:01about how do we change the ratio of these, in terms of women directors, writers in the industry,
02:10and that was where it was like, well, and Kate was there, Kate Blanchett, a number of us,
02:18and Meryl was like, we have to work with them, we can't just say it's really important,
02:24we actually have to do the work, and so that's when I went, okay, and I was heading off to the
02:28Cannes Film Festival, and suddenly I was sitting up on the podium there at a press conference,
02:33and I went, yeah, I pledge to work every 18 months. There's so many women, like Jane Campion
02:38and Susannah Beer, I mean, there's now Helena Raine, and so many different women who have been
02:44an enormous part of guiding me in terms of directing. I genuinely believe women with
02:50power would behave differently. Want to start? With something like Baby Girl, I'm being watched
02:57over by a woman who has written, is directing, and is also an actress herself, so she's shaping
03:07this role and this performance for me so that it is an extraordinary, complex, deep, funny.
03:22The woman is, by having Helena do that, I could talk to her about my secrets and my feelings and
03:29things I have gone through in my life, and she could share hers, and I felt very safe with her,
03:36and I felt like I could try anything, and she was never going to betray me or use me in a
03:42particular way that wasn't going to feel safe and wasn't going to feel respectful, and she would
03:51basically cherish my heart and my soul, which is kind of a really beautiful place. Be it actresses,
03:58producers, writers, everyone who's starting out in the industry, I want to say that I'm in your
04:07corner, you know, cheering you on, or a part of your career and helping you build it, and I'm also
04:15happy to share any of my knowledge, yeah, in terms of what I've experienced, what I've done wrong,
04:21financially, things you need, because there isn't a wealth of information out there unless it's
04:29unless you actually go and seek it out. As much as you appear like you, you're confident, and you've
04:36you've got it all together, there's so many times when you're like, I'm shattered, or I'm exhausted,
04:42or how am I meant to process this, or how do I do this, this, and I have a huge sense of
04:48responsibility, so I have to, I'm always like, it's okay. Some of the best advice I've given is,
04:55go easy on yourself, Nicole, go easy, and it's a lovely thing to remind,
05:01to be, because I'm probably my harshest critic.