Nicole Kidman: Nic of Time

Q: How can you and Tom always get to each other?

A: Sports. Take squash. I taught him. Three months later, he's beating me. Chess? Backgammon? He trounces me. It's like, "Give me a break."

Q: What's your take on your own sexual vibe?

A: It changes all the time. It's inconceivable to me that I'd be seen as a sex symbol, and it's certainly not something that I choose to do. But, it's an important element in people's lives and sometimes, that's something you want to explore. In My Life, you wouldn't say that that was a sexual role. In Portrait of a Lady, I'm dealing with a woman who is so frustrated sexually that she can't allow any of it out. I wouldn't know what sexual tone I give out consistently. But I'm certainly not frightened of exploring it.

Q: You and Tom seem so driven and ambitious.

A: If I wasn't with someone that was like that, I'd go crazy. I also believe in being individuals. People ask, "Do you help with each other's film choices?" Absolutely not. You don't want to be working four or five months flat out on a film because your husband or wife said, "Why don't you do this movie? You'd be great in it." You'd hate them for it if it was terrible. They recently offered us the chance to be on the cover of Vogue together, saying, "You'd be the first couple ever on our cover." We've never even done a photo shoot together. The Vogue cover was not of interest, particularly for me because then it looks like I'm riding on his coattails. I'm over-defensive about it. Which is why we haven't done a movie together since Far and Away.

Q: Neither of the movies you've done together was a huge box-office hit. What if it turns out that audiences don't want to see you together?

A: Okay, fine. But you also don't make movies for just what other people want. Anything is possible in this industry. You can defy the norm. You can be the most down in the dumps actor who hasn't had work for so long and suddenly one film turns it around. As an actor, when you see a 70-year-old actor, someone who's been up and down and all over the place, not only survive but deliver a great performance, something goes, "Good on you!"

Q: Would you be further along or less far along in your career if it weren't for Tom?

A: You can get very lazy when you're married. You can sit back, like, things are fine. I don't need to make an effort. One day, though, I just said to myself: "What are you doing? Get your act together." Which is why I did Malice and My Life back to back. And why I did "Saturday Night Live" even though I was terrified, because I have got to push myself now. That's what I did in Australia and that's what I have to do now.

Q: The higher the profile you and Tom present, the more rumors there are about both of you.

A: Shoot 'em at me.

Q: Was Tom so bent out of shape about the sexier stuff in Billy Bathgate that he showed up on the set and put the screws to Disney to tone them down?

A: [Shaking her head "no"] Uh-uh. I'm not the kind of person who would allow that, anyway. He was best friends with Dustin Hoffman at that time and they're still very close. He showed up on the set, occasionally, and was hanging out with Dustin, but not when we were doing those kinds of scenes. On Malice, Tom also occasionally came by. But, he's such a strong force that I don't like to have him on the set. It distracts me and it's bad for the other actors. You can't have your spouse there twiddling his or her thumbs, watching. It makes me too self-conscious.

Q: When Mimi Rogers gibes in Playboy that Tom was thinking about becoming a monk...

A: Which she later said she was being facetious about. I don't know what she meant, but I can assure you my husband's no monk. [Laughing] He's the best lover I've ever had, so I don't know what was wrong with her. Now, I haven't ever met Mimi, so I haven't been able to discuss that with her. She and Tom are not enemies, they've talked. I'm pretty sure that she was being tongue in cheek. You've met Tom, did you believe it when she said that?

Q: Well, I don't know what goes on in Tom Cruise's bedroom.

A: Stephen! He's a very sexual guy. I don't know what was going on with them, and I'm really not that interested because, you know, you just move on. See, my relationships with my ex-boyfriends are great. I had a three-year relationship and a one-year relationship.

Q: Were any of those with actors before?

A: [Rolling her eyes, laughing] Yeah, one of those. And with a director once. And a writer once. Mainly people in the industry, and not by choice, because I can remember being desperate to meet, like, a lawyer. Anybody who wasn't in the industry, someone straight who works a nine-to-five job. [But] it's easier to be with someone who's in the industry or at least has an interest in what you're doing.

Q: Let's talk about the Scientology rumors. Like the widely-reported stories that you both demanded expensive voice recording equipment on Far and Away.

A: Absolute bullshit.

Q: Scientologist bosses guide and advise your careers.

A: Absolute bullshit.

Q: Are you as deeply into Scientology as Tom is?

A: He discusses it publicly, I don't.

Q: Did your wedding party celebration feature the mandatory table of high-ranking Scientologists?

A: Absolute bullshit. There is so much crap written in relation to both of us. No one is going to tell me what to do. If someone says, "You can't do this or that," that only makes me want to do it more. I don't know where people get this stuff. I feel it's their problem and not ours. But I can assure you, it's not true! Life's hard enough as it is without having everyone around you trashing you. In my personal life, I pride myself on things like being a loyal friend. I've got school friends that I've been friends with since I was eight years old. All women. I'm a woman's woman. I've always loved men, love the company of men, but if I'm in a room, I gravitate towards the women.

Q: Have you ever had a relationship with a woman?

A: No, no.

Q: Where do you come out on this whole flap about Tom Cruise being cast in Interview With the Vampire?

A: He'll give his whole side of it when he does his interviews. But moviemaking is about taking risks. Anyway, aren't actors usually praised for trying to do something that they're physically unlike? Or for something unlike anything they've tried before? Tom's been criticized for being the all-American, for not taking risks. So, now he's doing something that he's completely removed from and everyone's going, "He shouldn't be allowed to do that." All I know is that he's working really hard on it. It's tough when a book has such a cult following, but I say, good on him for trying.

Q: Do the homoerotic aspects of the project unsettle you, as in, Tom Cruise should not, for his career's sake, do this?

A: Not at all. I think it's great. I think it's something that's very important in society. I say explore it.

Q: That brings me to another rumor that chases Tom, that he's gay.

A: That he's gay? Really? Well, ummm, he's not gay in my knowledge. You'll have to ask him that question.

Q: I found it odd that you once said, "Officially, we will be on our honeymoon for the rest of our lives."

A: He said that. I loved that. "Officially" came from the question, the way it was thrown. Unofficially, my idea is that you have to keep working at it, making it fun. You have to keep trying to impress each other.

Q: Are you both control junkies?

A: I can't answer for Tom, but, in his personal life, no he isn't. Professionally, neither. Am I? No. You drive yourself crazy trying to control things. You can never control it. I've learned that not everyone is going to like you. You can only go on doing things that you feel happy with.

Q: What's the special vibe between you two?

A: We met during the audition process for Days of Thunder and there was just a connection. There was just something like, "God, I feel like I know you." His humor is so on the same vibe as mine. The thing that people don't know about Tom is that he's so funny. When he's in a totally relaxed mode, he's hysterical. He has a great command of his body. He's a great dancer. I would love for us to do something where you would really see those sides of him. He's really loose and funny.

Q: You're taller than Tom. Did you ever downplay your height around him?

A: I went in for the Days of Thunder audition thinking, "He's not going to be comfortable playing opposite a girl who's taller than him." I was really lucky. There are certain men who can deal with tall women and certain men who can't. The ones who can are the only ones I want to know. I wear three-inch heels. I love it that Geena Davis is six foot, Sigourney Weaver is five-eleven and Daryl Hannah is five-ten. When I was growing up, there were none of those role models.

Q: Were you terribly self-conscious about your height?

A: Guys weren't interested in me because I wasn't short and curvy and tan-skinned and blonde. I was five-foot-ten at 13 years old. It's character-building when you're not the pretty little girl at school about whom everyone says, "Oh, isn't she gorgeous." I had to learn to survive on other things.

Q: Who turned you on as a kid?

A: Jimmy Dean. Every young girl sees Rebel Without a Cause and falls in love with him. And Brando. I saw A Streetcar Named Desire and he leaped off the screen. I did the play at school and I saw the movie because of that. And that first scene of him... my GOD! Of course, all the guys that I hung out with were walking around trying to be Jimmy Dean or Marlon Brando. Cheap imitations!

Pages: 1 2 3