Nicole Kidman Says Marrying Tom Cruise Protected Her From Sexual Harassment in Essay About Power in Hollywood
Ahead of a busy end of the year that finds her starring in awards hopefuls “Boy Erased” and “Destroyer,” Nicole Kidman joined New York Magazine’s The Cut to share an essay examining her own power in Hollywood. Kidman began the article by saying her ultimate power in the industry is in being able to leverage her star power to get challenging projects made (see “Big Little Lies,” in which she served as producer), but she said projects like “Destroyer” proved to her how much power she still has left to gain.
“‘Destroyer’ was hard to get made,” Kidman said. “You have a female director, Karyn Kusama. You have me in a lead role as an avenging undercover cop who looks the way I look in that movie — not glamorous. It’s about a very complicated, angry woman. People are not going, ‘We can’t wait to make this film!'”
Kidman also opened up about her experiences with sexual harassment in the industry. While the Oscar-winning actress admitted to having “#MeToo moments” over the years, she declined to go into specifics about the misconduct she has faced. Kidman said she gains power by channeling her experiences directly into her work.
“Do I want to expose them in an article? No. Do they come out in my work? Absolutely,” Kidman said. “I’m open and raw…I want to have my well of experience and emotion tapped into, used — and I’m not just talking about sexual harassment. I’m talking about loss, death, the full array of life. But it has to be by the right people so it’s not abused again.”
Kidman got a little more candid while discussing her relationship to Tom Cruise, who she married in her early twenties. The actress said she gained something from her time being romantically involved with Cruise, but it wasn’t exactly power.
“I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me — it was protection,” Kidman said. “I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up.”
“Boy Erased” opens in theaters November 2 from Focus Features, while Annapurna has set a December 25 opening for “Destroyer.” Head over to The Cut to read Kidman’s essay in its entirety.
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