Trivia

She saved Hugh Jackman from a poisonous scorpion on the set of Australia (2008). While she was about to join Hugh in the bag, she noticed the poisonous scorpion crawling up his leg. She calmly told him not to move and squatted down, scooped the arachnid into her hat and walked over to the woods and released it. Everyone applauded but was asked why she hadn't just stomped on it. She said, 'I would never kill an animal. Every creature here has its purpose. This one just didn't belong in Hugh's bag!'".

On set of Cold Mountain (2003) she gave co-star Natalie Portman the advice to "Always choose a film by its director. You're never certain how the movie will turn out, but you are always guaranteed an interesting experience". In 2010, Portman said that she always had that in mind, during her career.

A very tall woman at nearly 5' 11", she actually stood about 4 inches taller than ex-husband Tom Cruise, and rarely wore heels when seen publicly with him so that they could appear similar in height. Since their divorce, she is rarely seen on the red carpet without high heels, and she often meets 6' 4" actors in the eye. She was already 5' 9" when she was age 13.

While reaching a divorce from Tom Cruise, Nicole lived with her friend Naomi Watts.

Has never used a body double for her nude scenes.

Writes short stories in her free time and hopes to publish them one day. She revealed in June 2014 that she's also working on her first screenplay for a feature film.

Some of her favorite movies are Gone with the Wind (1939), Breaking the Waves (1996), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Grease (1978), Rear Window (1954) and The Way We Were (1973).

Originally cast as Mrs. Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005). She was the one who suggested Brad Pitt as the co-lead.

When she married Tom Cruise, part of their promise was that they would never be separated for more than two weeks. The same promise was applied between her and her second husband Keith Urban. However, they later reduced it to one week and finally they settled on three days of separation to be the limit.

Sharks are one of her passions and to shark-dive is one of her favorite activities. She considers sharks to be "beautiful".

Keith Urban gave Nicole a first edition of Emily Brontë's novel, "Wuthering Heights", purchased from Sotherby's for $200,000 as a wedding present.

She asked her wedding guests not to buy any presents for her and Keith Urban but to donate the money instead to some humanitarian organization.

She was originally reluctant to star in The Others (2001), since it explored such dark places. She tried to persuade the director Alejandro Amenábar and the Weinstein brothers, the producers of the film, to find another actress for the part and even suggested Julianne Moore to the Weinsteins. However, in 2010, Kidman revealed that the film is one of her favorites among her own filmography.

First Australian actress to win the Best Actress Academy Award (for The Hours (2002)) (75th Academy Awards, March 23, 2003).

Said that if she had not been an actress, she would have been a doctor.

Is allergic to strawberries and scared of butterflies (lepidopterophobia). Curiously snakes and spiders don't faze her.

Did her own singing for Moulin Rouge! (2001), Happy Feet (2006), Nine (2009), The Prom (2020) and Spellbound (2024). She also performed the intro for The Undoing (2020).

Is a pianist, and did her own piano-playing in Cold Mountain (2003).

Her prenup with Keith Urban has the following stipulations: 1. for every year they're married, Urban gets $640,000; 2. if he should relapse in drug use, the contract becomes null and void and he gets nothing.

Zac Efron said that shooting the improvised dance scene with her in The Paperboy (2012), was "the day he became a man".

Meryl Streep considers her to be one of the best actresses of her generation. Emily Blunt, Freida Pinto, Dakota Johnson and Sophia Bush all considers her among their favorite actresses.

She was supposed to be the star of Panic Room (2002), but she hurt herself in a stunt for Moulin Rouge! (2001). So, she played the voice of Jodie Foster's divorced husband's wife.

She loved wearing the prosthetic nose, that she originally used in The Hours (2002) and wore it in private too, mainly as she was undergoing a divorce from Tom Cruise at the time and was attracting a lot of paparazzi interest. Much to her delight, by wearing her fake nose out and about, she found she could easily evade the paparazzi as they didn't recognize her.

Although naturally left-handed, she taught herself to write right-handed for her role in The Hours (2002), where she played the right-handed author Virginia Woolf.

It was widely claimed that her friend Naomi Watts turned down the female lead in The Interpreter (2005) because she knew Nicole wanted the role. However, the part was actually written exclusively for Kidman, who was a longtime friend of Sydney Pollack, the director of the film. They previously starred in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and he produced her films Birthday Girl (2001) and Cold Mountain (2003).

In 2015, she starred as Rosalind Elsie Franklin, the English chemist and X-ray crystallographer, in the play "Photograph 51", as a tribute to her father, the late Antony Kidman, who worked as a biochemist and clinical psychologist. She donated her entire salary to The Actors' Benevolent Fund, and in her father's name to King's College, in honor of her father and Rosalind Franklin.

Is highly conscious of avoiding excessive sun exposure, and is rarely seen during her downtime without a hat, sunglasses and wearing sunscreen. In fact, best friend Naomi Watts has said that "Nicole won't cross the street without a hat."

Her Hawaiian name is Hokulani, which means "heavenly star". She was named after a baby elephant, that lived at the local zoo of her childhood home, as her mother loves elephants.

Scored an IQ of 132+

Attended Princess Diana's funeral with her then-husband, Tom Cruise.

Moved in together with Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh during filming Margot at the Wedding (2007), because they wanted to perfect their roles as a dysfunctional family.

She was well-respected by the late and famed film-critic Roger Ebert. He considered her to have a dichotomous career; "She seems to be two people: the glamorous star of "Moulin Rouge" and "Nine," and the risky, daring actress in "Birth," "The Hours" and "Eyes Wide Shut." He also believed that in time, she will gain more respect; "Celebrity has clouded her image; if she were less glamorous, she would be more praised. Age will only be an asset to her.".

13 films in her career have been nominated for at least one Academy Award. The most common categories among her representative films is 'Best Supporting Actress' for which six of her films have been nominated.

In 2013, both she and husband Keith Urban were nominated for a Golden Globe. She received her tenth nomination, while he received his first.

Became a mother for the fourth time at age 43, when her daughter, Faith Margaret Kidman-Urban, was born on December 28, 2010 via surrogate. Child's father is her second husband, Keith Urban.

Found out about her first Academy Award nomination, for Moulin Rouge! (2001), while shooting Dogville (2003) in Sweden. She was in the middle of shooting a scene when someone held up a sign with the announcement.

Became pregnant twice by Tom Cruise during their marriage. In 1991, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy, resulting in their decision to adopt, and then in 2000, prior to their separation, she suffered a miscarriage.

Her Oscar is placed over the fireplace in her mother's home.

Cate Blanchett considers her a trailblazer for Australian actors having a chance making a career in the US.

With her performance as Virginia Wolf in The Hours (2002) lasting around 25 minutes, she has one of the shortest Best Actress Oscar wins in history.

Was a part of the notoriously secret and long shoot of Eyes Wide Shut (1999). For one minute of footage of the film, director Stanley Kubrick demanded her to do shoot six days of naked sex scenes with a male model. Not only did he ask the pair to pose in over 50 erotic positions, he also banned her then-husband and co-star Tom Cruise from the set and forbade her to assuage her husband's tension by telling him what happened during the shoot. The decision to direct each actor separately an forbid them to share notes was done to exaggerate the distrust between their fictional husband and wife.

Was in a band when she was a teenager, she was the singer.

Has worked with some of the most celebrated and acclaimed directors in the movie business: Stanley Kubrick, Lars von Trier, Werner Herzog, Park Chan-wook, Noah Baumbach, Anthony Minghella, Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, Baz Luhrmann, Jane Campion, Gus Van Sant, Ron Howard, The Wachowski siblings and George Miller. In addition to this, she has expressed an eagerness to work with Michael Haneke and has always dreamed of working with her friend Steven Spielberg.

Is in the 50th-anniversary edition of the Guinness Book Of Records as the highest-paid actress in a commercial. She netted $3.71 million for her part in a four-minute Baz Luhrmann-directed Chanel No. 5 movie ad. The ad, costing $11 million a minute, is a short film titled "No 5: The Film". Guinness book editors noted the actress earned $928,800 per minute. Costumes designed by Karl Lagerfeld and score by Debussy.

August 2004: Australian business magazine Business Review Weekly listed Kidman as the richest Australian woman under age 40, estimated at a worth of $155 million (Australian).

Her performance in Sam Mendes's West End play "The Blue Room" (1999) inspired both Baz Luhrmann to cast her in Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Stephen Daldry to cast her in The Hours (2002). She received an Oscar nomination for both films.

Noted comedienne Joan Rivers considered her to be one of the most intelligent and funniest actress in Hollywood. She also considered her to be among "the last real movie stars".

Is very close friends with fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman, her Australia (2008) co-star.

Was originally cast as Ulla in The Producers (2005) and was considered for roles in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013) and Bel Ami (2012). All three roles eventually went to Uma Thurman. Furthermore, Joel Schumacher also wanted Kidman to play Poison Ivy in Batman Forever (1995), but the use of the character was delayed to a later entry in the Batman series, in which Thurman played the part.

Good friends with Renée Zellweger, Jim Carrey, Russell Crowe and Meryl Streep. She also became good friends with Daniel Craig after working with him on The Invasion (2007) and The Golden Compass (2007). In 2014 she revealed that whenever he goes to Australia, he always stays at her house.