Tom Cruise made rare comments about ex-wife Nicole Kidman in a new interview with the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound magazine
The actor praised Kidman’s acting abilities and spoke about how he played a role in getting her a part in 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut
Cruise and Kidman, who share two kids, were married from 1990 to 2001
Tom Cruise has made rare comments about ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
The Top Gun: Maverick actor, 62, praised the Practical Magic star’s acting abilities in a new interview with the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound magazine.
While discussing the 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise recalled flying out to meet with director Stanley Kubrick to discuss the movie at the filmmaker’s home — and how he made a key casting suggestion.
“It was basically he and I getting to know each other,” the actor said, per Deadline. “And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice]. Because obviously she’s a great actress.”
Related: Nicole Kidman Reflects on Marriage to Tom Cruise: ‘I Think I Offered It Up’ to Media Scrutiny
Kidman, 57, eventually landed the role in the sexual drama, and she and Cruise — who had been married at the time — played couple Dr. William Hartford and his wife Alice Hartford, as they dealt with infidelity.
The Mission: Impossible actor told Sight and Sound that the former pair worked hard to get the “tone of the film” right.
“It was a very unique experience – not a large crew,” he recalled to the magazine. “We arrived in the summer and basically we just started testing … the script was just an idea. We [were] constantly rewriting the scenes and shooting the scenes and then reshooting the scenes to really find the tone of the film.”
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Tom Cruise kissing Nicole Kidman in a scene from the film ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, 1999.
Kidman previously reflected on the movie in a 2020 interview with The New York Times, stating that, despite the dark tones of the film, she and Cruise — who wed in 1990 after meeting on the set of Days of Thunder — often found ways to lighten the mood after a shoot.
“We would go go-kart racing after those scenes,” Kidman said. “We’d rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning.”
The actress also explained that they had been raising their children — daughter Isabella and son Connor — at the time, and would often have family dinners with Kubrick, who died at age 70 shortly after the film was completed.
“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 and Cruise split in 2001. Over a decade after the breakup, the actress told DuJour magazine in 2012 that it “took me a very long time to heal.” She added to the publication that the parting “was a shock to my system.”
Cruise would go on to marry Katie Holmes and welcome daughter Suri, though they would later split in 2012. Kidman, meanwhile, married Keith Urban in 2006, and the couple shares two daughters: Sunday, 16, and Faith, 14.
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