Actress Nicole Kidman attends the red carpet of the movie “Babygirl” presented in competition during the 81st International Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido, on August 30, 2024. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)

• Nicole Kidman wins Best Actress in Venice for her daring role in “Babygirl,” directed by Halina Reijn.
• The Oscar-winning actor continues to reinvent herself, showcasing her versatility and bravery in challenging roles.
• Kidman dedicated her award to her late mother, honouring her influence and expressing heartfelt gratitude.

One of Hollywood’s biggest stars who is never afraid to push herself, Nicole Kidman ventured even further from her comfort zone with erotic thriller Babygirlwhich saw her named best actress in Venice on Saturday.

A queen of the silver screen since the 1990s, the Oscar-winning Australian admitted to nerves when the no-holds-barred film from Dutch director Halina Reijn premiered in the Italian watery city last week.

Kidman, 57, played Romy, a married, high-powered New York CEO who embarks on a torrid, sado-masochistic affair with a new company intern.

Kidman had delved into the genre in 1999 with her then-husband Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shuta similarly in-depth look at sexuality and the human psyche.

But she admitted her latest film left her “exposed and vulnerable and frightened… when it’s given to the world”.

Unfortunately, she was not in Venice to accept her award, after arriving in the Italian city to hear that her “beautiful, brave mother” Janelle had died.

“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’m beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Helena. The collision of art and life is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken,” Kidman said in a statement read out by Reijn.

Master of reinvention

Kidman won her Academy Award in 2003, for her transformation into writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours.

Reinvention has been a theme in Kidman’s storied career, her chameleonic skill taking the high school dropout from Australian teen movies, including BMX Banditsto Hollywood’s A-list.

She has never lacked daring either, throwing herself in riskier indie roles throughout her four decades in film – from Gus Van Sant’s To Die For(1995), for which she won a Golden Globe, to Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer(2018).

She was first nominated for the best actress Oscar in 2002, after her turn in fellow Australian Baz Luhrmann’sMoulin Rouge!and scored another nomination in 2011 for Rabbit Hole.

Another nomination followed, in 2017 for Lion– the story of a young man from India adopted by an Australian family who searches for his long-lost relatives on Google Earth.

She was also nominated for an Oscar two years ago, for her role as queen of comedy Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.

Big and small screen queen

Kidman took to drama from a young age after her family moved from Honolulu, where she was born, to Sydney when she was four.

She made her feature debut in the Australian television film Bush Christmasin 1983, the same year she left school at 16 to pursue acting full-time, and won international praise for the thriller Dead Calm in 1989.

The following year, she met Cruise on the set of the racetrack romance Days of Thunder.

The two married in 1991 and adopted two children – Isabella and Connor – only to split a decade later in one of Hollywood’s most famous divorces.

Once one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, Kidman took a step back from acting after falling for New Zealand-born country musician Keith Urban, whom she married in 2006.

Like many top actors and directors, Kidman has been lured in recent years to the small screen, winning plaudits for a string of television roles, including in Big Little Lieswhich earned her an Emmy, and Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake.

Kidman and Urban have two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

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