Nicole Kidman Flawlessly Clapped Back at Giada De Laurentiis on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
What do you get when you mix one TV chef and one Oscar-winning actress in a cooking segment on a daytime talk show? Undeniable proof that Nicole Kidman is the Australian queen of the side-eye—and perhaps the most awkward six minutes in recent TV history.
Big Little Lies star Kidman and famed Food Network chef Giada De Laurentiis appeared on Tuesday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and took part in a segment in which De Laurentiis taught the actress and host how to cook a few of her favorite Italian specialties.
Things got off to a rough start as the three women started to roll arancini balls out of leftover risotto. De Laurentiis asked Kidman, “Nicole, have you ever made meatballs or anything?” seemingly implying that she couldn’t cook. In classy Kidman fashion, though, the question was met with an eyebrow raise but otherwise ignored.
Nicole Kidman’s 13 Most Transformative On-Screen Roles, From Big Little Lies to Eyes Wide Shut
In 1990’s Days of Thunder, Kidman’s first role opposite soon-to-be husband Tom Cruise, she plays Dr. Claire Lewicki, a doctor charged with nursing Cruise’s NASCAR driver character to recovery in the aftermath of a horrific crash. Though a critical flop, Days of Thunder marked Kidman as one to watch — and it still has a cultish fan base nearly three decades later.
Kidman and Cruise’s second co-starring effort was Far and Away, the Ron Howard period piece about two Irish immigrants in turn-of-the-century America. Another film that was a popular success but a critical non-starter, Far and Away nevertheless found Kidman once again utterly transformed into the Irish émigré Shannon Christie.
Arguably Kidman’s most important role to date came with To Die For, the darkly funny crime comedy about an aspiring television anchor (Kidman, as Suzanne Stone). It earned the actress her first Golden Globe (she had previously been nominated, but lost to Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King) and, as a bonus, also features a 17-year-old Casey Affleck in his first role.
Kidman is luminous in the already overstuffed Batman Forever, which premiered later in 1995 with Val Kilmer as the titular Batman. She plays Batman’s love interest Dr. Chase Meridian, a psychologist — and though Batman Forever was far from Kidman’s most complex or lauded role, it still finds her again transformed, this time into the quintessential damsel in distress (albeit one with a PhD).
In the last of Kidman’s three roles opposite Tom Cruise, she plays his art curator wife Alice Harford in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. It’s an eerie, complicated role, in which Alice deals with her own suspicions and dissatisfactions while Cruise, Dr. William Harford, undertakes a kind of sexual odyssey.
Kidman was nominated for Best Actress at the 2002 Academy Awards for her starring turn in Moulin Rouge! opposite Ewan McGregor. It turns out, Kidman is also a capable singer in addition to a transcendent actress.
It’s not just Kidman’s capable acting that sees her so transformed in 2003’s The Hours — the film that earned her her first and only Oscar thus far. It’s also her prosthetic nose that completes her evolution into the writer Virginia Woolf.
Nowhere is Kidman’s skill better on display than in the minimalist Lars Von Trier masterpiece Dogville, in which Kidman plays a woman on the run from the mob who hides out in the small town of Dogville, Colorado. With a set simply demarcated by lines on the floor, the film makes the most of its all-star cast, with Kidman at the center of it all.
Adapted from the 1997 novel of the same name, Cold Mountain earned an Oscar not for Kidman, but for supporting actress Renée Zellweger. Nevertheless, Kidman is in top form as a young society woman surviving Civil War-time hardships in the eponymous town of Cold Mountain.
With The Hours and Cold Mountain behind her, Kidman embarked on an early-’00s period of creative triumph. Two years later, she appeared in an entirely different kind of film, starring as an actual witch — Isabel Bigelow — playing an on-screen witch — Samantha Stephens — in 2005’s Bewitched opposite Will Ferrell. The film itself was widely deemed a failure of an adaptation of the original sitcom — but Kidman was singled out as the movie’s redeeming factor.
Kidman earned her third Oscar nomination for Rabbit Hole, the 2010 drama co-starring Aaron Eckhart and Dianne Wiest about a couple coping in the aftermath of their child’s death. Rabbit Hole also marked the feature debut of Miles Teller.
Last year, Kidman found herself back in the awards season conversation as Sue Brierley, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, a young Indian man — played alternately by Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar — searching for his birth family. An extremely ’80s perm is just the start of Kidman’s on-screen transformation.
Kidman is one part of the all-star cast roped into HBO’s Big Little Lies, the limited series also starring Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, and Laura Dern. Kidman plays Celeste, the stay-at-home mom and wife of Alexander Skarsgard, whose picture-perfect marriage and children bely a fraught narrative of domestic abuse.
Then, after seeing Kidman’s perfect arancini take shape, De Laurentiis announced, “The woman who can’t cook made the perfect ball!”
As it turns out, Kidman has admitted in the past that she’s not a great chef, but the woman can act, sing, dance, produce and even finds times to write short stories in her spare time. Give her a break.
Nicole Kidman Has Taken a Lot of Risks on the Red Carpet, and They Always Pay Off
Nicole Kidman (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise at the Director’s Guild of America in Hollywood, California.
Nicole Kidman (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise during “Eyes Wide Shut” Los Angeles Premiere at Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, California, United States.
Nicole Kidman during 9th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Nicole Kidman (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman during 53rd Annual Golden Globe Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise (Photo by Kevin Mazur Archive/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman in Tom Ford for Gucci. (Photo by Gregory Pace/FilmMagic)
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
Nicole Kidman at the The Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California (Photo by Jim Smeal/WireImage)
Actress Nicole Kidman arrives for the 80th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California on February 24, 2008.
Nicole Kidman arrives at the Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton January 20, 2002 in Beverly Hills, California.
Nicole Kidman during The 76th Annual Academy Awards – Arrivals at The Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, United States.
Nicole Kidman during The 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards – Arrivals at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Actress Nicole Kidman arrives on the red carpet for the 68th annual Golden Globe awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 16, 2011.
Actress Nicole Kidman arrives at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
Nicole Kidman arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California.
Nicole Kidman arrives at The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on February 13, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.
Actress Nicole Kidman arrives at the 45th annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena on November 9, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Nicole Kidman arrives at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel on January 15, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California.
Nicole Kidman attends the “The Paperboy” premiere during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 24, 2012 in Cannes, France.
Nicole Kidman arrives at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 13, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California.
Nicole Kidman attends the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on February 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.
Nicole Kidman attends the World Premiere of “Paddington” at Odeon Leicester Square on November 23, 2014 in London, England.
Nicole Kidman arrives at the 87th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 22, 2015 in Hollywood, California.
Nicole Kidman arrives at Women In Film 2015 Crystal + Lucy Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza on June 16, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.
Nicole Kidman attends the opening ceremony and “Grace of Monaco” premiere at the 67th Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2014 in Cannes, France.
The tension between the two continued into the focaccia-making portion of the segment, with De Laurentiis yelling at Kidman to use more olive oil. Kidman, who was clearly trying very, very hard to smile through the scolding, managed to serve up some more side-eye in the process. Finally, though, the actress reached her boiling point—it may have been when De Laurentiis called her “honey,” or after the TV chef recommended Kidman “don’t make so many things” in order to be a better cook—when it came time to try the focaccia.
“It’s a little tough,” Kidman deadpanned after taking one painful-looking bite of the food. “I know I’m not supposed to criticize, but…”
“There’s a new season of Food Network Star, which is the only reason I’m here,” responded an exasperated De Laurentiis while quite literally throwing in the dish towel and trying to explain that the meal had been sitting out for five hours and that she hates doing cooking shows.
Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres spent most of the segment snacking on the “tough” pizza and trying not to get involved. Cue millions of Americans cringing into their TVs, trying to process what just happened.
Couture at the Oscars: 15 Memorable Gowns from the Biggest Award Show of the Year
Nicole Kidman wearing Christian Dior Haute Couture at the 1997 Academy Awards
Marion Cotillard wearing Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture at the 2008 Academy Awards
Zoe Saldana wearing Givenchy at the 2010 Academy Awards
Sarah Jessica Parker wearing Chanel couture at the 2010 Academy Awards.
Rachel McAdams wearing Elie Saab couture at the 2010 Academy Awards.
Anne Hathaway wearing Valentino couture at the 2011 Academy Awards.
Mila Kunis wearing Elie Saab couture at the 2011 Academy Awards.
(L,R) Rooney Mara at the 2012 Academy Awards; Karlie Kloss walks the Spring 2009 Givenchy couture runway.
(L,R) Emma Stone at the 2012 Academy Awards; a model walks the Spring 2012 Giambattista Valli couture runway.
Jennifer Lawrence wearing Dior couture at the 2013 Academy Awards
Angelina Jolie wearing Elie Saab couture at the 2014 Academy Awards.
Lady Gaga wearing Atelier Versace at the 2014 Academy Awards
Keira Knightley wearing Valentino couture at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Gwyneth Paltrow wearing Ralph & Russo couture at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Julianne Moore wearing Chanel couture at the 2016 Academy Awards.
Related: Nicole Kidman Will Have Four Projects at Cannes 2017
At 49, Actress Nicole Kidman Is Still Quite Impressionable:
