Nicole Kidman’s single favourite movie of all time: “You’ll be in awe”
Some actors shy away from challenges, but not Nicole Kidman.
As someone with titles like Eyes Wide Shut under her belt, Kidman is the ultimate embodiment of versatility, with her choices inspired by a deep-rooted desire to constantly move in directions she hasn’t explored before.
When it comes to choosing a favourite film, most actors struggled to narrow them down, an understandable issue when you remember that people like Kidman view film as the ultimate form of art, but her deep love for all kinds of styles and genres is also what makes her list of favourites so diverse, because after all, with favourites comprising films like When Harry Met Sally and Clueless, it’s not hard to figure out that Kidman enjoys those she feels an emotional connection to.
Which is also why she initially fell in love with Shirley MacLaine. As one of the truest and most enduring Hollywood veterans, MacLaine is seemingly capable of everything, rising to the top of the tail-end of Hollywood’s golden era and earning popularity through roles in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry, Herbert Ross’ The Turning Point, Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, and, of course, James L Brooks’ Terms of Endearment.
Despite some disagreements about MacLaine’s on-set demeanour, actors generally love her for her strong on-screen personalities and ability to mix raw vulnerability with stubbornness and charm. In the oftentimes pretentious pool of Hollywood’s biggest players, MacLaine is seen by many as the real deal – even if sometimes her unapologetic charisma turns people off.
These are all the reasons why Kidman was first drawn to her, both as an actor and a person. To Kidman, MacLaine has nuance like no other; her performances are able to evoke the most drastic and oftentimes contradictory reactions in audience members. As an actor, there’s nothing that compares to emotional nuance, and in Kidman’s eyes, MacLaine sits at the pinnacle of that ability.
As she once explained, “If you look at Shirley MacLaine’s performances over the years, you’ll be in awe. Here is a woman who has been in some of the greatest comedic and dramatic movies ever.”
She also named her ultimate favourite, continuing: “She’s made us laugh and cry – especially in one of my favourite films, Terms of Endearment.”
Elaborating further, Kidman said that it’s MacLaine’s ability to make her “laugh one minute and cry the next”. She also said that that’s a hard balance to strike, but that the actor does it “beautifully”. She went on, “She was the heart and soul of that film as the mother. She not only dealt with her daughter’s illness, but also made Jack Nicholson a better man in the movie. She held her own with Jack in those scenes where he romances her, and he’s really good!”
Most people view Kidman the same way, and of course, actors as revered as she is are always going to have their personal heroes, but when you look at Kidman’s roles and achievements, it’s clear that she absorbed many of the same traits, bringing nuance and vulnerability to any shoes she steps into, leaving the audience completely engrossed in the story and her characters.
