Nicole Kidman has revealed that she almost quit acting in 2008 after giving birth to her daughter but was persuaded to continue her career thanks to her mother.
The 57-year-old, who most recently starred in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, said that she thought her career was over when she moved to Nashville with her husband, Keith Urban, and gave birth to their first child, Sunday Kidman-Urban.
Kidman, who had previously adopted two children with her ex-husband Tom Cruise, was determined to give her full attention to her family but her mother convinced her to not retire from acting altogether.
“When I get birth to [Sunday Kidman-Urban], I was like, ‘Well, I think I’m pretty much done now,” the Moulin Rogue star told CBS News.
“We were living on a farm, and that’s when my mother said, ‘I wouldn’t give up completely. Keep a finger sort of in it.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m done now. I’m done.’ She’s going, ‘Just listen to me. Keep moving forward. Not saying that you have to do it to the level you’ve been doing it, but I wouldn’t give it up completely.’”
“That came from a woman who was from a generation that didn’t have the opportunities that I had, that she had helped create for her daughters,” Kidman added. “So that’s probably something that she wished she’d had when she was little.”
Three years after taking her mother’s advice, Kidman found herself picking up her third Oscar nomination for her role in Rabbit Hole. Since then, she has been nominated for two more Oscars, for Lion and Being the Ricardos respectively.
Kidman’s mother passed away in September, aged 84. The news was broken to her while she was at the Venice Film Festival, where she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in Babygirl.
The actor received the award for her role in Babygirl, Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller in which Kidman stars opposite Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness).
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Reijn read a statement on Kidman’s behalf, saying she had flown into Venice, only to find out “shortly after that my beautiful, brave mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, has just passed.”
“I’m in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me. I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina,” the statement continued. “The collision of life and art is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”
