Over the past 12 months Nicole Kidman has been touted as the busiest woman in Hollywood, helming several productions as an actor, producer or both. Each project is wildly different from the last, seemingly raising the bar every time. For any creative, the workload would be understandably exhausting or could lead to a level of complacency. But Nicole, 57, thrives on the pressure and, despite her well-earned status in the industry, she doesn’t buy into resting on her laurels.
“I just love exploring,” she tells TV WEEK in a press conference for her new black-comedy thriller, Holland. “I call myself a character actress. I don’t consider myself as a lead actor or movie star kind of thing. I just love creating characters.”
From Netflix’s suspenseful drama The Perfect Couple with Liev Schreiber and comedy movie A Family Affair with Zac Efron, to the electric and steamy drama Babygirl – for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination – and her continued collaboration with Australian author Liane Moriarty, there seem to be no limits to her repertoire. But she also lends a hand to those who are starting out. She’s acutely aware of how difficult it is to get a break in this famously fickle industry.
“I’m in a position where I get to try things,” Nicole says. “I also get to support other people who want to be on a similar path of exploring and trying out [new things] – and to find people behind the camera who like to do that, too.”
It was in 2017 that the Australian actress vowed to work alongside more women, including a female director every 18 months, and to make space for them in the entertainment industry. Since then, Nicole has collaborated with 19, one of them being Mimi Cave, the director of Holland, a suburban comedy thriller co-starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Succession star Matthew Macfadyen.
The Oscar winner stars as Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher and homemaker whose picture-perfect life in Holland, Michigan, is turned on its head by the discovery of a shocking secret.
“She’s someone who has the idea of what it means to be in a very idyllic white-picket-fence life. But there is also a restlessness to her and a desire underneath. That’s where we find her at the beginning,” Nicole explains.
Gael, who plays Nancy’s fellow teacher and alluring friend, Dave, adds that he was drawn to the project as an admirer of Nicole’s career. Then the story of mystery and deception in perfect suburbia reeled him in further.
“It was the invitation to the whole spectrum of what this was going to be, and with Nicole,” he says. “It was a wonderful act of faith.”
Mimi adds that the dark subject matter is balanced with humour, something she hopes will allow fans to enjoy the true popcorn experience.
“Holland is a really fun ride – you’re laughing and then you’re scared and then you’re on the edge of your seat,” she says. “I do hope people will just go with it and move back and forth between these different genres.”
In this small town, everyone has a secret, everyone is a suspect and, as with any classic thriller, you won’t see what’s coming next. It’s been a tried-and-tested format for many years but one that still works because, whatever the arc of the storyline, its unpredictable nature keeps viewers hooked.
“Hopefully, it feels a little bit like a movie from the past,” Mimi says.
The unveiling of a character’s true self and complexities has always been a skilfully used technique in Nicole’s artistic toolbox. In the acclaimed 2021 drama Nine Perfect Strangers, she crafted a mysterious figure in wellness director Masha, whose past was as complicated as her muddled accent. As season two of the show approaches, the layers are peeled back further on the character that
Nicole described to Vanity Fair as “so different from anything I do. There’s a kind of mischievous quality to her. She’s not what she seems, which is always a wonderful thing to play.”
While the first season was filmed in Australia, the follow-up will head to the cooler climes of the Austrian Alps. The setting is as chilly as the new clientele, played by Christine Baranski, Murray Bartlett, Henry Golding, Annie Murphy, Dolly de Leon and Mark Strong. Can a new location yield new results for Masha’s controversial methods? Unlikely. But that’s half the fun for the star in any role she takes on.
“We need [fun] right now,” she says. “‘It’s so difficult to get films made now, so being able to advocate and be a support, that’s what I love to do. Then I step in as an actor and say: ‘OK, shape me, form me. Let’s play.’”
Mimi is quick to point out the truth of this: “Nicole makes bold choices. She’s really doing what she’s saying, what she’s talking about.”
But, no matter how bright her star might shine, Nicole is humble when she adds that she still loves what she’s doing and doesn’t ever forget it.
“It’s a magnificent gift of a journey that we’re all on,” she says of working in the film and TV industry.
“I never forget how glorious that is, because there are so many people that don’t get to do that in life. And we do. I will never take it for granted.”
Stream Holland on Prime Video from $6.58/mth, with a 30-day free trial.
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