The Stunning Transformation Of Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman is beautiful, perfect, funny — oh, and seriously talented. Really, there isn't a negative word to use when talking about the actress. Kidman has been wow-ing the world on screen for decades and only continues to reach new levels of success, taking on new, challenging roles that remind us just why we respect her so much.

Aside from her career, Kidman has been married to Keith Urban for over a decade and the couple only looks more and more in love as the years go by. She also takes on the role of super mom with her four kids. And whenever we see this star on the red carpet, she appears gracious and happy. Over the years, Kidman has gone through her own struggles and successes, and has handled them all like the classy lady she is. So let's take a closer look at Kidman's life and her stunning transformation.

Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1967, and grew up in Sydney, Australia. She had her focus on academics in her younger years, as her father was a biochemist. He taught Kidman and her younger sister many lessons and enforced a few rules. According to Kidman's interview with Vanity Fair, she used to have to do push-ups every day. As Kidman said in the interview, "When I was six years old, I was in class at school, and we all had to say what our fathers had taught us ... I answered, 'He taught me always to exercise — and never vote Republican.' My teacher almost fell off her chair." 

And as for Kidman's relationship with her mother, it was not the most affectionate. As The Guardian reported, Kidman's mother once said to her daughter, "I'm not the kind of mother who's going to hug you. It's just not me, so don't expect it." But even without the hugs, Kidman still took care of her mom when times were tough.

When Nicole Kidman was 17 years old, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. This had a huge affect on the teen and made her want to help. As she later described to Vanity Fair, "My mother had breast cancer when I was 17, and it affected me in such a deep way. You see someone go through chemotherapy and it's a year of hell. It's the most upsetting thing that's ever happened in my life, but it also made me very aware. I had to confront death at an early age, had to realize that people are mortal — you're born, you die. I'm sure I have rain up ahead and I'm sure I also have sunshine, and that's life."

Kidman's mom beat the disease, but her mother's journey stuck with Kidman. She continued to want to give back. She later became involved with the U.C.L.A. Women's Reproductive Cancer Research and Treatment Program as a chairperson. For Kidman, it's a simple fact that she should give back. As she said during the interview, "I believe that as much as you take, you have to give back. It's important not to focus on yourself too much."

Nicole Kidman has known since her toddler years that her life was meant to be in the arts. As she described to Vanity Fair, "I started ballet when I was three, all on my own initiative. I did mime and street theater, and I started weekend drama school when I was about nine. I left school when I was 17 — I knew what I wanted to do."

But even though Kidman knew this was her path, she had some struggles getting there. As she told the magazine, "I didn't enjoy being what I was. I was really tall, and I wasn't the girl who got all the boys. 'Stalky' was my nickname — that's what they called me. I'd audition for school plays and I'd get rejected because I was too tall." It's hard to picture Kidman being rejected, and with her talent, those nos would soon turn into yeses. Kidman continued to work hard, and soon found success at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre.

Nicole Kidman began to see film success in her early 20s. She then was cast in the Tom Cruise movie "Days of Thunder," and in addition to starring in the film, she also struck up a relationship with the leading man himself. The two married when Kidman was just 23 years old. As her career was taking off, and Cruise's was in full gear, the two had a very well-known union.

Kidman later reflected on this fact with Vanity Fair, saying, "There is something about that sort of existence that, if you really focus on each other and you're in that bubble, it's very intoxicating, because it's just the two of you. And there is only one other person that's going through it. So it brings you very close, and it's deeply romantic." And Kidman and Cruise were willing to do what it took to make the marriage work. They had crazy schedules but understood what they had to do. Kidman said, "I think in this industry you can get lax, you can get lazy, and that's so destructive to your relationship. If it means getting on a plane and having to fly in to see each other, even if it's for 24 hours, you do it. It's the thing that keeps you together. Life's too short to endure months of separation, where you're on the phone going, 'wish, I wish, I wish.'"

Marriage at 23 years old was not the only big moment for Nicole Kidman. Just two years later, the then-25-year-old, along with her husband, Tom Cruise, adopted their daughter, Isabella. Even though she was so young, Kidman knew this was meant to be. She later reflected on the time, telling Vanity Fair, "It's fate, completely. The adoption was a very spontaneous thing: we decided to adopt her because the situation came up. I just believe, for whatever reason, that these children were meant to be in our family." Kidman mentioned that she would like to give birth to children as well, but if that didn't happen, it wasn't "going to destroy" her.

At the time, Kidman knew she and Cruise had to work even harder for their relationship. She continued, saying, "You have to really work to create time alone, without it being time the children should be having. It's about saying, 'Honey, I really, really need time with you alone. I need a dinner date!'"

In 2001, Nicole Kidman was reaching even greater fame. She starred in popular films like "The Others" and "Moulin Rouge!," but through the success, the actress was having a tough home life. At the time, the then-34-year-old was going through a divorce with then-husband Tom Cruise. It was not an easy time, and Kidman used this opportunity to work more. As she described at the 2015 Women in the World Summit in London (via Entertainment Tonight), "To be completely honest, I was running from my life at that time ... I wasn't able to handle the reality of my life and as an actor you have this wonderful thing where you can go and get lost in somebody else's life and become somebody else for a period of time, and when I look back on it, I really see that."

But even with the opportunity to escape, Kidman didn't seem to have any regrets when it came to the marriage. She told Australia's WHO Magazine (via People), "I got married really fast and really young. But I don't regret that because it got me [children] Bella and Connor, and I did have a fantastic marriage for a long period."

Great art also came out of a tough time for Nicole Kidman. She threw herself into her work and the results were noticed. As she later talked about her divorce and what happened next, she said (via ET), "Out of that came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me, because I was like, 'Ah.' So I then embraced my own life and I got myself together and it took me a number of years, and during that time I worked a lot ... The work was a great place for me to exist."

Her work was so impressive that Kidman won the Oscar in 2003 for her leading role in "The Hours." And it was in this moment that Kidman realized something. "That [work] culminated in winning an Oscar and that caused an epiphany," she said. "I was sitting in the Beverly Hills Hotel [holding this gold statue] and it was all extraordinary and I was the loneliest I'd ever been." But she wouldn't be lonely forever.

For a few more years, Nicole Kidman continued to work, and, at the same time, she continued to feel a sense of loneliness. And then in 2005, the then-38-year-old met someone who would be very important in her life. As she later told Vanity Fair (via E! News), "I think we were two lonely people. I would probably say that two very lonely people managed to meet at a time when they could open themselves to each other. We were a mixture of frightened and brave."

This person was Keith Urban, and Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman's relationship took off fast. The couple married quickly in 2006. Kidman explained the situation to Elle (via HuffPost), saying, "I kind of like getting married and then getting to know each other. I know that it sounds incredibly strange, but to me, it's a more natural process."

Nicole Kidman, of course, began her journey into motherhood when she was just 25 years old, when her and her then-husband Tom Cruise adopted their children, Isabella and Connor. In a 1995 interview with Vanity Fair, Kidman expressed a desire to have biological children in the future as well: "I would like to give birth to two children. I would like to experience that." In 2008, Kidman would give birth to her daughter, Sunday, at age 41 (via Daily Mail). Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, were delighted to welcome their baby daughter into the world. 

In 2011, the couple had another daughter, Faith, born via surrogacy (via BBC News). "I've experienced adoption, birthing a child and I've experienced surrogacy. I'm like when it comes to it, I just wanna be a mama," she told CNN in an interview.

Both Kidman and Urban were older parents by the time of their daughters' births. This was a concern for Kidman, and she expressed her anxiety in an interview with "CBS Sunday Morning." "It makes me sad — I would just like to be here long enough to have my children grow up and for me to see them thriving," she said in 2016. "Just wanting to be here. I'm an older mother, so, you know ... Oh, please [let me be here]. Please, please. But, hey, what will be, will be," she continued.

Nicole Kidman's career has continued to excel, but the star is totally happy to stay away from Hollywood, outside of her job. She lives in Nashville with husband Keith Urban and their family and couldn't be happier. In 2013, she told Vanity Fair, "The whole business side of it — it's too present. It doesn't suit me ... There's an enormous amount you have to give up if you want to have a family. You can have a certain career, but you can't be living in Hollywood, [where] absolutely everything, everything revolves around it. That wasn't my choice. I'd rather revolve around somebody else's career and then still find my own."

Because of this, Nashville became the perfect spot. She continued on to say, "I have stepped away from the fame part of it. I didn't find what I was looking for in fame. So I went, O.K., this is not for me. And it was such a blessing that I found somebody who said, 'Well, are you willing to move to Tennessee?' And I was, 'Oh, am I willing to move!'"

As someone who has taken on such memorable roles, Nicole Kidman must have specific strategy when picking her next part, right? Not so much. As she told Town & Country, "I call myself the wild card ... because I have no idea what it is. I'm so spontaneous — sometimes to my detriment and sometimes my benefit — but it's how I've always been. My husband never knows what I'm going to choose. And then he'll ask me to explain why and I can't!"

Kidman is the first to admit she's not perfect and sometimes her choices don't end up being just right, but she's going with her gut. She continued on to say, "The mistakes I've made have always involved people not matching the extreme artistic desire — when I've tried to be a bit more homogenized, or tried not to be as bold. When I've been guided into places that don't suit what I am intrinsically — that's when it doesn't work out ... My whole thing is, I'm going to try it. I think that's probably frustrating to people who wish for me to be more strategic. But I've been the same way since I was 14. I don't conform ... That's just my nature."

After a career of film acting, Nicole Kidman eventually found herself acting for television in 2017 when she starred in "Big Little Lies," alongside Reese Witherspoon. Kidman and Witherspoon served as executive producers for the show, which was born from a desire to create meaningful roles for women. "It was building opportunities for ourselves and our friends," she told W magazine. The show follows three mothers played by Kidman, Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley, whose lives begin to spin out of control. Kidman became deeply connected to her character, Celeste, and would often bring her work home with her. "I would keep on a very brave face at work and then I would go home and I didn't realize how much it had penetrated me. And it affected me in a deep way," Kidman told W magazine.

In 2021, Kidman starred in another television show based off of a book by the same author of "Big Little Lies." "Nine Perfect Strangers" follows nine strangers as they arrive on a resort island and quickly discover that their dream retreat isn't quite what they expected. Kidman's deep dive into prestige television drama lead to her fully committing to the art form. "I suppose the artist spirit, a lot of times, is saying, 'I don't care what it's gonna cost me as a human being, because my thrust is deeply artistic,'" she told Harper's Bazaar in an interview.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem weren't exactly fan-favorite choices when the two were cast to play Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz for the film, "Being the Ricardos."

At the time of the film's production in 2021, Kidman had never truly branched out into comedic acting. Embodying one of the most famous comedienne's of all time proved to be a monumental task for the actor. "When I started doing all the physical comedy, and doing her voice, when it finally came, it was like, 'Ah.' And then I didn't want to stop doing it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. 

To prepare for the role, Kidman worked with a voice coach to lower her pitch to match Ball's signature voice (via Vanity Fair). She would also undergo a hair and makeup transformation that involved wigs and prosthetics. Ana Lozano, the lead makeup artist for the film, explained to Backstage that the film's director, Aaron Sorkin, instructed the hair and makeup team as such: "We are not taking a photograph; we are doing a painting." Teressa Hill, the head hair stylist, felt that they had successfully transformed Kidman into the essence of Ball through hair and makeup. "We'd see Nicole go into the trailer, and every time they left our trailer, they were embodying the essence of those characters," she told Backstage.

With Nicole Kidman's Oscar-nominated performance in "Lion" and her powerful role in the HBO series "Big Little Lies," it's clear that she is not slowing down. She continues to surprise us with her artistic choices and knocks it out of the park each time. Whether she is giving an intense soliloquy in character or jokingly telling Jimmy Fallon he could have asked her out in the past, she never fails to surprise.

We don't know what's on deck for Kidman, but we'll be paying close attention to her acting career. Kidman is a breath of fresh air, and we're anxiously waiting to see what she challenges herself to do next.