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Early life and career
Nicole started taking ballet lessons when she was three, and this led to studies at St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne, the Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney, and then to the Philip Street Theatre, where she majored in voice production and theatre history. She studied at North Sydney Girls' High School, but dropped out when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, as Kidman concentrated on her family responsibilities until her mother's recovery.
Her first appearance on film came in 1983 when, as a 15 year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had secured a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek, and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s and early 1990s she appeared in several Australian movies and TV series, notably including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam (1986), Bangkok Hilton (1989) and Flirting (1991). In 1989 she appeared in Dead Calm which gained her notice in the United States.
Marriage to Cruise
Her American debut was in Days of Thunder (1990), a stock-car racing movie opposite Tom Cruise. Although Cruise was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time, he and Kidman became ˇ°an itemˇ°. Cruise divorced Rogers and the couple married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted two children, Isabella and Connor, and lived in Los Angeles, California, Australia, Colorado, and New York.
After ten years, the marriage was dissolved in 2001: there was much media speculation about the reasons for this, but both celebrities maintained their privacy and were guarded in their public comments. One persistent rumour claims however that Kidman's desire to bring up their children Catholic, and her critical views on Scientology caused the problems in her marriage with Tom Cruise, who is known to be an outspoken follower of the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.
Hollywood career
thumbAfter ˇ°Days of Thunderˇ° she starred with Cruise in Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992). Later she was in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick's final film, when she co-starred with her husband as a married couple for the second time.
1995 was to bring much success. She was featured in the all-star cast of Batman Forever and later that same year she starred in To Die For, earning high praise from critics. Although media speculation thought that she would earn an Academy Award nomination for her performance, it was not to be. She did however win a Golden Globe award.
Kidman's most professionally successful year was 2001, with her Oscar-nominated performance in Moulin Rouge! and well-received star turn in a horror film, The Others. While in Australia filming Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her knee, so Jodie Foster had to replace her in Panic Room. The following year Kidman came back to win the same praise from critics for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for this role. In the same year she took a hand at production for the film In the Cut.
In 2004, Kidman appeared in the remake of The Stepford Wives alongside Glenn Close, Faith Hill and Bette Midler. In September of the same year, Kidman's film Birth in which the 37 year-old actress' character falls in love with a 10 year-old boy (played by Cameron Bright), who she believed to be a reincarnation of her dead husband, the film was met with a mixed reception. Despite the mixed reception, the film was nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.
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