by Maria Ward– Vogue
Tonight the highly anticipated miniseries Big Little Lies premieres on HBO. An adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s best-selling 2014 novel, it stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, both of whom also served as coproducers. Playing the part of a lawyer turned stay-at-home mother in a seemingly picture-perfect marriage to Alexander Skarsgård with decidedly sinister undertones, the Australian actress kept it real during filming: “I was pretty beaten up physically,” Kidman said. “It was tough. I’d go home and be bruised all over, and my neck and parts of my body were really damaged because I had thrown myself into it to such a degree.” If you doubted the repercussions of that type of wear and tear, Kidman can vouch for the psychological effects: “At the end of a day’s shooting, I’d go home and sit in the bath and cry.” Here, five more things you may not have known about Nicole Kidman.
- Kidman was once engaged to Lenny Kravitz. In a recent interview, Kidman revealed she was set to walk down the aisle with her rumored boyfriend Kravitz, whose daughter Zoë just so happens to costar in Big Little Lies. “Well, I knew Zoë because I was engaged to her father,” she said. “It’s all in the family! I love Lenny; he’s a great guy.” The actress became involved with Kravitz following her divorce from Tom Cruise, and in 2007, hinted at their relationship to a reporter: “It just wasn’t right. I wasn’t ready. We weren’t ready,” she said. “I get engaged and I get married—that’s my thing.”
- For 1996’s The Portrait of a Lady, Kidman wore a corset to whittle her waist down to 19 inches. But that wouldn’t be the last time Kidman would go to extreme lengths for the sake of fashion while filming: She broke her rib trying to fit into a corset during production of 2001’s Moulin Rouge—twice. “I hurt myself dancing in heels at three in the morning, and I fell downstairs,” Kidman said. “I then rebroke my rib getting into a corset. I had this thing that I wanted to get my waist down to 18 inches, which Vivien Leigh had in Gone With the Wind, and I was just like, ‘Tighter, tighter!’” Perhaps it paid off. Kidman earned a Golden Globe award and a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her memorable turn as the Parisian courtesan.
- Kidman once saved Hugh Jackman’s life. While on the set of Australia, Baz Luhrmann’s 2008 drama, Kidman had a scene in which she joins Jackman in a sleeping bag under the stars; she noticed a poisonous scorpion crawling up her costar’s leg. Kidman’s response? She supposedly told Jackman not to move a muscle, scooped the animal into her hat, and released it back in the wild. “Everyone applauded, but we did ask her why she hadn’t just stomped on it,” said one onlooker, to which Kidman replied, “I would never kill an animal. Every creature here has its purpose. This one just didn’t belong in Hugh’s bag!” (Must be an Aussie thing.)
- Kidman turned down the lead in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but not without recommending Brad Pitt. In fact, Pitt left the project once Kidman pulled out due to scheduling conflicts, only to sign back on when he discovered Angelina Jolie would be stepping in. Following her very public split from Tom Cruise, Kidman cited Brangelina as being the only other couple in the world who could fathom what they were going through: “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,” Kidman told Vanity Fair. “And there is only one other person that’s going through it. So it brings you very close, and it’s deeply romantic. I’m sure Brad and Angelina have that—because there’s nobody else who understands it except that person who’s sleeping right next to you.”
- Keith Urban took four months to ask Kidman out. The now husband and wife of 10 years first met at an event in 2005. “I swear to you, she glided across the room, like floated. I don’t know how she did it,” Urban later told Oprah. “It was out of this world.” The country music crooner played it cool, though. As Kidman recalled on an episode of Ellen: “I’m like, ‘You didn’t love me at first sight, you didn’t notice me,’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, I did, but I just didn’t let on.’” Now the couple keeps the love alive by being physically together as much as possible. When they tied the knot in 2006, Kidman and Urban initiated a two-week separation rule, before reducing it to one week, and finally settling on no more than three days apart, even if that means hopping on a red-eye for less than 24 hours whenever the country or an ocean requires crossing. “That, for me, is love in action,” Kidman has said. Let’s call that thing number five and a half: She’s a lady worth traveling for.