Nicole Kidman Will Always Be the “Why Not?” Girl

Nicole Kidman has notched Golden Globe nominations for her portrayals of a tragic showgirl (Moulin Rouge!), a hardened police officer (Destroyer), and a murderous local weather forecaster (To Die For). Her landmark 20th nomination comes for her role as a powerful CEO entwined in a BDSM-tinged affair with a much younger intern in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl. In a career full of fearless performances, Kidman is still finding ways to push herself and audiences into brave new territory. The 57-year-old Aussie wouldn’t have it any other way. “It captivated me; it didn't scare me,” she tells W’s editor at large, Lynn Hirschberg, of the role. In fact, Kidman has adopted novelist Philip Roth’s frequent question “Why not?” as something of a personal motto. Crashing a party? “Why not?” Believing in the existence of aliens? “Why not?” Being forced to seductively drink a glass of milk on-screen by her costar Harris Dickinson’s hunky character? “Why not?” indeed.

Your performance in Babygirl has been called brave. Did it scare you to play a married woman who is having such an intense affair?

It captivated me; it didn't scare me. Yes, there’s sex, but it’s existential in its crisis for this character: A woman’s having an exploration of who she is at this particular age, in this relationship—the different roles that she plays, her desire to hold on to her power and then relinquish it. It’s very honest, which I love. Halina has taken that genre of ’90s sexual thrillers and subverted it and made it her own. This is her third film as a director, but as an actress she worked with Belgian theater director Ivo van Hove quite a lot. She's incredibly rigorous in terms of performance and commitment. She wrote it, she's directed it, and she basically could play every role in it.

I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit.

I never give myself credit. I would love to give her all the credit. I'm so relieved that I love the film. It's hard when you do something like this and then you go, "I don't like the film." But I learned early on that it's actually not about me anyway; it really is about a vision. How do you help put these stories on-screen? They're not about me, Nicole. They're a much wider look at human beings and the way we exist in the world.

You’ve been acting since you were very young. Were you a theatrical child?

Yes! I was putting on shows in the backyard, in the schoolyard, at lunchtime with people going, “I just want to eat my lunch. I don’t want to learn a play.” I’d be like, “You haven’t learned your lines!” When I was 13, I was in Sweet Bird of Youth [by Tennessee Williams]. I had no understanding of what the actual text meant [it’s about an aging actor and her gigolo]. The director Jane Campion came and sat in the back of the little theater, and she cast me in one of her student films, which I subsequently did not do. I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t want to wear a shower cap and not look pretty. What a big regret. Huge regret!

Did you get nervous when you started auditioning in America?

I was hungry and nervous. I had done all these things in Australia, but I was so young—I was 19. But I had worked since I was 14, 15 years old. I was a kid who just worked. So I was like, yeah, I can do that. I wanted to go to Broadway. I wanted to have the chance to try things. It was just, am I going to get the chance to play fully rounded, interesting roles? Is that going to happen for me?

Your mom passed away recently. What were her favorite films of yours?

The more love and the more intimacy and closeness you have with a person, the more it’s going to hurt losing them. But I’ll take the pain. She loved Rabbit Hole. She loved The Paperboy. She never saw Babygirl. She loved The Hours. She was tough, though, in her criticism. So I’m used to that, which is quite good.

Have you ever had a bad red carpet look?

My mama thought I had many bad red carpet looks. I remember wearing a headdress once to the Golden Globes. I didn’t know what I was doing. Got to have a few train wrecks!

Which was your favorite?

Probably the chartreuse Dior gown by Galliano for the 1997 Oscars. But I also love the Galliano gold gown for the 2000 Oscars, which no one talks about. I wore the most beautiful little 24-karat gold vintage mesh gloves. They had little gemstones in them. But, I'm also partial to a tie and a suit. My natural way of dressing would be far more pants, tie, suit, and a jacket. My first purchase when I'd saved all my per diem money was an Alaïa suit. I wish I kept it. It cost a fortune. It’s nauseating that I did that.

Are you saving your clothes for your daughters?

I've saved all the red carpet dresses. I have them all beautifully boxed. They're museum pieces. They raid my wardrobe all the time. I'm like, "Okay, what's mine is yours." But I don't raid their closet, even though I'm like, "Oh, that's cute." But I'm not allowed to take anything. It's a one-way exchange.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

“I'm Not in Love,” the 10cc song. I don’t mind a little Captain & Tennille either.

Do you sing in the shower?

I do. I also hear Keith [Urban, her husband] singing in the shower, and I’ll hear his new songs forming. We have a double shower. The double-headed shower: key to a successful marriage. Separate commodes and a double-headed shower!

Have you ever crashed a party?

Who hasn't? But it's not really my style. When I was younger, I would drive up to a party and if I was alone, I couldn't go in. I'd be all dressed and then I just didn't have the guts to go in. Isn't that crazy? I’ll still never walk into a party by myself, but if I'm with a group, I'll crash. Why not?

Do you keep a diary?

I used to keep a diary every single day. I naturally journaled to find my sanity when I was young. I started at 9. It became my solace and my way of working through so many things that were very complicated in my head through those teen years.

Do you ever go back and read them?

I burned a lot of them. There were two I actually put a curse on. I was raised on Bewitched, so I put a curse: "If anyone reads this, something terrible will happen." I subsequently found out my mom had read them all because she wanted to make sure that I was going to be okay. When I found out much later in life, I was like, "That was just not good. You shouldn't have done that." But now I'm glad she did it. And she also knew me in the deepest, deepest subconscious way, so I'm happy for her to have had all that access.

If you could ask a Magic 8 Ball one question, what would it be?

Are there aliens? But we all know there are aliens, right?

You think there are aliens?

As Philip Roth would always say, "Why not?" I'll always be the “Why not?” girl.

Style Director: Allia Alliata di Montereale. Hair for portfolio by Paul Hanlon at Dawes & Co.; makeup for portfolio by Sam Visser at Art Partner; manicures for portfolio by Michelle Saunders James. Set design by Gerard Santos at Lalaland.

Creative producer to Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott: Leonard Cuinet-Petit at January Productions; producer to Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott: Kevin Isabelle; produced by AP Studio, Inc.; executive producer: Alexis Piqueras; producer: Anneliese Kristedja; associate producer: Kimmy D’Ancona; production manager: Hayley Stephon; production coordinators: Miranda Dos Santos, Susan Lucas; photography assistants: John Neate, Jed Barnes, Chris Whitaker, Kendall Peck; digital technician: Niccolo Pacilli; digital assistant: Cassian Gray; postproduction by Dreamer Post Production; fashion assistants: Tyler VanVranken, Molly Cody, Celeste Roh, Raea Palmieri, Tatiana Isshac, Haleigh Nickerson, Lauren Marron, Savannah Steilner, Sage McKee, Frankie Benkovic, Kaley Azambuja, Tatum Sanchez; production assistants: Gigi Rosenfield, Lily Cordingley, Eli Cash, Lex Vaughn, Anderson Renno, Kat Saravia, Kyle Dekker, Wyatt Noble, Brandon Martin, Moose Krupski, Josh Muwwakkil, Bradley Gonsalves, Drew Carter, Thomas Lynch, Alex Kofman, Jackson Schrader, Anatalia Zavaleta, Joseph Wride, Matt Flynn; first AD: Steve Kemp; location manager: Kyle Hollinger; hair assistants: Kim Garduno, Ben Gregory, Marco Iafrate, Hyacinthia Faustino, Chris Foster; makeup assistants: Shimu Takanori, Laura Dudley, Brian Dean, Beatrice Sandoval; manicure assistant: Cheyenne Vander Schuur; set design assistants: Seth Powsner, Denver Stoddard, Ryan Johnson; tailors: Irina Tshartaryan, Ripsime Vartanyan, Jackie Martirosyan at Susie’s Custom Designs, Inc.