Morgan Freeman said it, but pretty much everyone who ascended the stage to award the AFI Life Achievement Award agreed: Nicole Kidman. She makes films better.”
The phrase appeared in a video spoof of Kidman’s AMC Theatre’s ‘we make films better’ commercial, which began the Saturday night event at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The gathering of multigenerational A-listers there to honour the 56-year-old Australian’s 40-year career, which has included parts in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” and an Oscar-winning performance in “The Hours,” erupted with laughter.
Kidman’s “The Hours” co-star, Meryl Streep, who presented Streep with the Life Achievement Award she earned herself in 2004, drew almost as many chuckles when, in a mock-boastful accent, she highlighted the toughest aspect of being “incessantly called the greatest actress of my generation.”
It’s when you come across someone who is “really, really, really, really, really great” and realise they did things you couldn’t, as happened with Kidman on the first day of their collaboration on the HBO series “Big Little Lies,” Streep added.
Streep and her “Big Little Lies” co-star Reese Witherspoon delivered a hilariously accurate Australian-accented impersonation of Kidman.
Streep also brought Kidman to tears when she described what she believed inspired her.
“People call it bravery when an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown and she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being,” Streep said in a statement. “But I don’t believe it is bravery. I guess it is love. “I think she just loves it.”
Kidman burst into tears for the first time in the evening when her husband and fellow Australian, musician Keith Urban, claimed she showed him “what love in action really looks like” when his drug misuse issues surfaced nearly immediately after their wedding in 2006.
“Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban added, glancing at Kidman, who was sitting on a dais with their two kids and other family members. “Nic fought through every negative voice, even her own, and chose love. And here we are, 18 years later.
Kidman revealed it was the first time she had her teenage daughters join her on the red carpet. She also has two children from her first marriage, Tom Cruise.
She accepted the AFI award at the same place as she received her Oscar in 2003 for her role as Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
She acknowledged each director she has worked with, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack, and Lars von Trier.
“Making films is a luxury. And it’s wonderful to have worked on films and television with these storytellers who let me be wild and free while playing all of these atypical women,” Kidman remarked, dressed in a floor-length, shimmering gold gown. “Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world.”
It was revealed in November 2022 that Kidman will receive the prize, which was originally given out in 1973 and has gone to Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, and Julie Andrews among others.
Kidman received Academy Award nominations for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Lion,” and “Being the Ricardos,” whose director, Aaron Sorkin, also praised her during the ceremony.
Others who honoured her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana, and Mike Myers, who appeared on stage disguised in one of the frightening orgy masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Kidman began her acting career as a teenager in Australia, appearing in films such as “Bush Christmas” and “BMX Bandits.” Naomi Watts, a friend from that time, remembered meeting Kidman when they had to stay in a waiting room in bathing costumes for two hours during an audition. Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, and Cate Blanchett all paid homage to Australia’s first winner of the prize in video form.
Kidman stated in a video shown at the event that her participation in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm” drew the attention of, among others, Cruise, the only time his name was mentioned Saturday night.
She made her Hollywood debut with him in 1990’s “Days of Thunder” (they married the same year), and they also appeared together in 1992’s “Far and Away” and 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”
