The movie Nicole Kidman thought was one-dimensional: “I wish I had a better role”
Even the most egomaniacal of actors would struggle to convince the world they’re 100% satisfied with every performance they’ve ever given, but the role Nicole Kidman singled out for criticism ironically doubled as the one that propelled her career to brand new heights.
Although she’d been acting since her teenage years, it wasn’t until the 1989 thriller Dead Calm that Kidman began making waves in Hollywood, having first gained attention in her native Australia. It was a local production featuring a local cast and crew, though, but her performance was more than enough to attract covetous glances from Tinseltown.
When her first American movie was released in June 1990, Kidman had only just turned 23 years old, but little did she know she was about to become tabloid fodder for the next decade. As well as marking her debut in Stateside cinema, Tony Scott’s racing thriller Days of Thunder also introduced her to Tom Cruise.
While Kidman’s profile would continue to rise throughout the rest of the decade, in the immediate aftermath of Days of Thunder, she was gaining more headlines for being Cruise’s wife than anything she was contributing on-screen, a perception that would admittedly change in short order.
However, despite playing a neurosurgeon in the film, Kidman didn’t find the part of Dr. Claire Lewicki to be particularly demanding. First encountering Cruise’s Cole Trickle when he’s laid up in hospital following a crash, the sparks soon fly between the pair as she provides the personal impetus needed for the upstart driver to realise his professional dreams.
Not that she was phoning it in, when self-confessed “geek” Kidman “went and worked in a hospital for a couple of days” to try and get at least some sort of handle on the part she was playing, but at the end of the day – no offence intended – the script didn’t present much opportunity for Lewicki to be much more than the standard love interest typically found in pulse-pounding blockbusters.
In fact, the future Academy Award winner laments the fact she didn’t end up with a more well-rounded arc than the one she was given. “I wish I had a better part,” she admitted to Entertainment Weekly. “It was kind of one-dimensional.” She’s not wrong, but Days of Thunder worked out pretty well in the long run, considering she met her soon-to-be husband and got her foot in the door of Tinseltown, regardless of how flimsy her character was on the page.
With six Golden Globes, an Academy Award, a Bafta, two Primetime Emmys, a Screen Actors Guild Award and more under her belt, it would be all too easy to forget that Kidman’s very first appearance in a Hollywood film. It came in a movie where she’d be the first one to admit there wasn’t much going on under the surface when almost the complete opposite drove her rise to prominence.
