The 2004 co-star who said Nicole Kidman wasn’t a legend: “She’s a beginner”
Nicole Kidman is one of the hardest-working actors of her generation. No matter if she’s stepping into an intense, emotionally draining role or one a little more lighthearted, the star has hardly backed down since she started acting in the 1980s.
Beginning her career in some local Australian productions, it wouldn’t be until her move to Hollywood a few years later that she truly cemented herself as a potential cinematic icon. Roles in some big movies, like Days of Thunder, came fast, but by the mid-1990s, she’d proved herself to be far from your average star.
Her role in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For was a brilliantly comic yet dark performance that singled Kidman’s greatness out – this was not someone whom anyone could ignore. Within a few years, she was the apple of everyone’s eye thanks to roles in the likes of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Baz Luhrmann’s musical romance Moulin Rouge!, and The Hours, for which she won a ‘Best Actress’ Oscar.
The actor was picking up leading roles like nobody’s business, moving between genres with ease and attracting the attention of some big names. Not everyone was as impressed, though. In 2004, following two collaborations with one another, classic Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall made a rather rude remark about Kidman that took many by surprise.
I mean, it’s not all that shocking that the sharp-tongued Bacall said something malicious – she was known for refusing to hold back her opinions – but her comments about Kidman were totally unnecessary. The pair first starred alongside each other in Lars von Trier’s experimental 2003 drama Dogville, before reuniting a year later to play mother and daughter in Jonathan Glazer’s polarising psychological drama Birth.
You’d think that these brilliant performances from Kidman would’ve impressed Bacall, who could’ve said something nice about her co-star when asked about working with her. Instead, she gave a response that was far from friendly.
GMTV’s Jenni Falconer said to Bacall in an interview, “And now you’ve worked alongside another screen legend, Nicole Kidman…” seemingly about to ask her about the experience, to which the To Have and Have Not star replied, “She’s not a legend. She’s a beginner.”
She continued, “What is this ‘legend?’ She can’t be a legend at whatever age she is. She can’t be a legend – you have to be older.” While it makes sense that Bacall would see Kidman as way more inexperienced than her, it was wholly unfair to diminish Kidman’s place in the industry, which had been firmly secured years beforehand.
At that point, Kidman was on a pretty flawless run of diverse titles, all of which spawned nuanced and unforgettable performances from the Australian actor – you would hardly call her a beginner. Over two decades on and Kidman has firmly proved her legend status, though, with roles across everything from Big Little Lies to The Beguiled. Bacall passed away in 2014, so we’ll never know if she thinks that Kidman has now reached a suitable age to be considered a Hollywood legend.
