Happy 44th Birthday, Nicole Kidman! What's Her Finest Onscreen Moment?
On this day in 1967, Nicole Kidman was born to Australian parents in Honolulu, Hawaii. After making her acting debut as a sheep in her school's nativity play, and her film debut as a frizzy-haired teenager in BMX Bandits, the actress went on to become one of Hollywood's most talented Aussie imports. Ahead, let's look back on the Birthday Girl's (ding!) career and decide once and for all -- or at last until her next Oscar-winning role -- what's Nicole Kidman's finest onscreen moment?
There are so many great films to choose from -- like Cold Mountain, Birth, The Others, Eyes Wide Shut, Rabbit Hole, and The Hours, for which she won her Academy Award.
Since it doesn't seem right to end the birthday festivities on such a serious scene, here is a slightly more upbeat favorite Kidman moment of Movieline's, from Moulin Rouge!
Please take a moment to wish Nicole a happy birthday and discuss your favorite Kidman performance below.
[Photo: Getty Images]
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It's really the one-two punch of Moulin Rouge/The Hours that made her career. View them back-to-back: after watching MR, it's nearly impossible to even pick her out in The Hours. You really don't "see" Kidman in her portrayal of Virginia Woolf, and it's not just because of the nose and wig.
It's hard to say because since "Cold Mountain" she didn't do something decent.
Nicole Kidman has certainly made good movies since Cold Mountain! Dogville (might have been the same year, actually), Rabbit Hole (which some critics argue is her finest performance, Margot at the Wedding, Birth, The Interpreter.
Her finest performance for me is in The Hours, closely followed by her role in To Die For and Rabbit Hole.
It's all about _To Die For_. I wish she would do some more (dark) comedy. At first I loved her in _The Hours_, but upon repeat viewing, I feel like I see the performance too much. _Rabbit Hole_ was certainly a step back in the right direction.
Bros and brodettes, c'mon! Obviously, it's "Eyes Wide Shut." The bedroom scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgofoUlxaBM
She was fantastic in "To Die For."
Moulin Rouge
I'd say Days of Thunder, but that's where she was slimed for life by the touch of T.C.
To Die For...yum.
It would have to be tie between "The Others" & "Rabbit Hole", because she is extraordinary at portraying emotionally/physically distraught characters.
Happy Birthday, Nicole!
Wait, Nicole Kidman is an American?! You DO learn something new everyday.
Ever since she shed her title as Mrs. Tom Cruise 11 years ago she's truly become one of the great actresses of this generation because of her fearlessness to access anything, even if it means risking her character's likability. My two favorite moments of hers are her stoned confessional scene in the supremely underrated EYES WIDE SHUT and the Wagner close-up in BIRTH, because both of those moments require only her face to move the audience rather than the camera moving in motion.
I loved To Die For. Also thought she was good in Margot at the Wedding. But that was the last movie of hers I saw because I really can't bear to look at her frozen face and distorted lips and mouth. Please stop with the injections, Nicole!
Enthusiastically seconded
She got nominated for an Oscar last year. It's something more than decent.
Well she was born in the US, but her family is Aussie and she was almost entirely raised in Australia. I think she considers herself a dual citizen, though, considering she now lives in Nashville.
I'm a huge fan of hers, and I find it impossible to pick just one best performance. But I will say that her work in "Eyes Wide Shut", "Cold Mountain", "Birth", "Margot at the Wedding" and "Fur" is wildly underrated. In fact, I think she's the most underrated actor of the last decade, and it was sweet vindication to see her nominated again this year.
I always admired Nicole Kidman! I liked her best in To Die For, Moulin Rouge,
& The Hours which she won an oscar in 2003! Nicole Kidman never dissappoints when it comes to the roles she chooses to play! If anyone deserves happiness its her! Happy Birthday Nicole!
While I agree the monologue in EWS and the zoom in on her face during the opera in BIRTH are amazing, to me nothing matches this scene from VIETNAM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd1yTu_Gqa4
Skip to 2:53
She plays a young, slightly naive peace activist during the war. In this scene she gives a radio interview, and discovers that a caller on the show is her own estranged brother.
The way she says, at the end "I'm sorry. That was my brother", as an embarrassed aside, gets me EVERY time.