The “provocative” pictures that landed Nicole Kidman a 2012 movie role: “It was a thumbs up”
There are an infinite number of ways for an actor to be cast in a movie, but Nicole Kidman sexting a director wouldn’t be one of the first that comes to mind, which didn’t stop her from doing it.
Before anybody’s mind wanders into the gutter, it wasn’t like she was taking saucy snaps of herself to convince a filmmaker to hire her. If anything, it was the opposite, with Kidman proving that she could not only get herself into character, but do it herself, and on a shoestring budget.
Still, at the end of the day, it’s Nicole Kidman sending suggestive pictures, so it’s definitely the sort of thing that would get most people’s attention. Despite being inordinately wealthy and incredibly successful, the star has been a champion of smaller-scale cinema for most of her career, and she’s shown on numerous occasions that she’ll gladly lend a hand to those on the lower rungs of the ladder.
Playing the sexually-charged role of Charlotte Bless in Lee Daniels’ 2012 crime caper The Paperboy showcased a different side of Kidman, not least of all when she volunteered to pee on Zac Efron for real in a scene where his character is stung by a jellyfish, which is one of the strangest examples of method acting you’re ever likely to encounter.
Beyond that, the Academy Award winner was committed to shaving as much money from the budget as possible. On one hand, that doesn’t make a lot of sense when a $12.5 million picture is hardly an independent flick being made on a miniscule budget, but Daniels would take what he could get.
“Lee said, ‘Look, we’ve got no money; you’re going to have to do your own hair and makeup,'” Kidman shared. “So, I actually went into my bathroom, and I got out the fake tan and put on fake eyelashes and got a hairpiece thing that was platinum, threw it all on and texted a photo to Lee in all these different provocative positions.”
Daniels informed his star that there may not be enough money available to provide the makeup, costuming, and hairstyling bells and whistles that she’d become accustomed to as one of the industry’s biggest female stars, so she responded in kind by doing it herself, and leaning into the character’s southern-fried sexuality.
How did he respond? She wasn’t telling. “That’s how it came together,” Kidman added. “What he sent back, I can’t say, but it was a thumbs up.” As mentioned, she was committed, and knowing how the seedier side of celebrity culture works, it’s probably not worth thinking about the creeps and weirdos who convinced themselves they might have been capable of hacking the director’s phone.
Even though he had no issues being sexted by his star, though, Daniels got cold feet at her tour de force tinkle on Efron. When he contemplated cutting the scene, Kidman flatly told him, “Lee, you made me pee on Zac Efron, if you don’t put it in the movie, you need to man up.” With that, it was restored.
