:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/nicole-kidman-eyes-wide-shut-1-100925-2cf1e9d4b1444214a03ec56aa1f23dbc.jpg)
NEED TO KNOW
- In an interview with Vogue, Nicole Kidman admitted to asking the late director Stanley Kubrick about the meaning behind Eyes Wide Shut
- Kidman starred in the 1999 film alongside Tom Cruise
- The film was Kubrick’s last project before he died at age 70
Like many viewers, Nicole Kidman didn’t fully understand Eyes Wide Shut.
Speaking with Vogue about making the 1999 film, the actress, 58, admitted to being nonplussed by the project and having to ask director Stanley Kubrick about what it meant.
“I was saying, ‘Well, Stanley, what does this mean?’” she recalled. “And he was like, ‘Don’t ever ask me that!’ “
The erotic psychological drama starred Kidman and her then-husband, Tom Cruise, who played a couple dealing with infidelity. The film also featured Sydney Pollack, Marie Richardson and Alan Cumming.
Warner Brothers/Getty
Kubrick directed, produced and co-wrote the film. However, the legendary filmmaker died from a heart attack six months before the movie was released at the age of 70.
In the same interview with Vogue, Kidman reflected on how the film felt similar to her movie Babygirl, which came out last year, jokingly tying the two together as a way to reflect on the breadth of her career.
“One ends with the word f— and the other one ends with the actual action,” Kidman told the publication with a laugh, “and there is my career!”
During a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Kidman gave more insight into her and Cruise’s experience working with Kubrick.
“We loved working with him. We shot that for two years,” she said. “We had two kids and were living in a trailer on the lot primarily, making spaghetti because Stanley liked to eat with us sometimes. We were working with the greatest filmmaker and learning about our lives and enjoying our lives on set.”
Kidman noted that she and Cruise, 63, were “happily married” at the time of filming.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty
Asked if working on the film brought up any “negative feelings” about their relationship, Kidman responded, “We would go go-kart racing after those scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning.
“I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I don’t have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I’m not willing to.”
Years later, the actress admitted that Kubrick may have been “mining” her and Cruise’s marriage, which ended in 2001, to “inform the relationship” between the two lead characters.
“There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling,” she said of the filmmaker.
Eyes Wide Shut is available to rent on Apple TV+.
