Nicole wears Marchesa gown, Van Cleef & Arpels earrings, Tiffany & Co bracelet and Bionda Castana heels
Norman Jean Roy
I expect she'll be relieved when her punishing schedule for Photograph 51is over, and she can go back to her home in Nashville, Tennessee, to relax, I say. 'I'll weep,' she declares instantly. 'It has made me fall in love with acting. The great thing about the play is I get to do it from beginning to end. Nothing ends up on the editing floor, it doesn't get changed. Once the actors step onto the stage, it's ours for 95 minutes and that's exquisite,'she says. 'Right now I'm having a love affair with being on stage.'
Beyond the thrill of live performance, it is clear that the play
itself is personally important for Kidman. Otherwise it might be hard to understand why she's put herself through it. There's no money in it, for she is donating her earnings to King's College (Franklin's place of work) and to the Actors' Benevolent Fund. Moreover, the role has meant a good deal of domestic disruption. She has had to bring her small daughters to London for several months, while her husband, the country singer Keith Urban, has been such a permanent fixture on transatlantic flights that she says the stewardesses all know him by name.
On top of this, she has struggled to overcome 'unbearable' stage fright. 'That extreme adrenalin that goes through your system, it's a really weird feeling,' she says. 'Your heart is pounding and you just have to get through it. It was kind of fascinating, because I had to navigate it, I couldn't run away from it. I would stand in those dark wings, thinking, "Why am I doing this to myself?"' Well, why is she? 'I don't want to become safe and complacent as I get older,' she explains.'I still want to push into different placesand feelings and experiences.'
Read the full interview with Nicole Kidman in the March issue of Bazaar, out 2 February.
