Why Nicole Kidman owes her career to a shower cap: “Today I know better”
There are many actors who would trade their first-born child or love of their life for the chance to work with their favourite director, dropping everything after a phone call or script arrives on their doorstep. It could be Florence Pugh and her slightly unwarranted enthusiasm at working with Christopher Nolan despite the fact that the part consisted of very little but being naked and mentally ill (a quality that Nolan seems to love in his female characters). Or perhaps it is Emma Stone and her lifelong dream being fulfilled after working with Ari Aster, something she highlighted during the Cannes press conference after many years of waiting for the odds to line her favour.
But to turn down the chance to work with a legendary filmmaker who has permanently occupied a spot at the top of your wish list is surely one you would never recover from, with Nicole Kidman publicly repenting for such a choice in a very public way and using it to inform the rest of her career.
Jane Campion is one of the most renowned modern directors working today, with monumental classics like The Piano and The Power of the Dog making her one of the greats. With a fascination for exploring desire and the many ways it manifests, whether it be repressed desire or something that verges on being more dangerous, Campion’s films touch on an unspoken and deeply human quality that many of us share yet struggle to articulate through words.
Through her sweeping imagery and enigmatic characters, Campion has had an indelible impact on cinema, and yet despite this, Kidman was deterred from one of her early projects due to being intimidated by the prospect of kissing a girl while wearing a shower cap.
When reflecting on this, Kidman said, “I am horrified to report that I passed on the part. My excuse was that I had final exams to study for, but the truth is the part would have required me to appear up on the screen wearing a shower cap and kissing a girl…I wanted to be the kind of actress with long flowing hair [who] kissed boys. I was not ready to do the kind of work that threatened anybody.”
However, in order to rectify this regret, Kidman later decided to don a shower cap and kiss Naomi Watts in front of hundreds of people, making up for the scene that previously stopped her from taking a risk and publicly vowing to not be threatened by such roles and to challenge the limitations of gender and sexuality on screen. Kidman then made a promise to work with a female director every 18 months, and has since worked with 27 female directors since 2017.
The shower cap became a symbol of Kidman’s commitment to this vow, saying, “Today I know better and I say, ‘Jane, if you’re out there…I’m ready to don this cap”.
Kidman did get her chance at working with Campion, starring in her 1996 film The Portrait of a Lady, but it seems as though another collaboration might be on the cards one day after her very public display of affection and love for the director. Who knew that a shower cap could become such a meaningful image and driving force for a Hollywood star?
