from florida on a mission to produce an enormous sd map of the cosmos. now on bbc news, this cultural life. welcome to this cultural life, the series in which leading artists and performers talk to me about their most significant cultural influences and experiences. i'm john wilson and my guest is oscar—winning actor nicole kidman, who's been

an international star for over 30 years now. i was really looking forward to meeting nicole in london, but even as superstars, travel plans can be ruined these days, so we talked virtually. nicole kidmanjoining us from los angeles, welcome to this cultural life. thank you. thank you for having me. you were born in hawaii and moved to sydney with your australian parents at the age of four. your father was a clinical psychologist and biochemist. was it a creative upbringing? yeah, absolutely. i mean, as much as i grew up the daughter of a scientist who became a psychologist, i was also the daughter of a nurse educator, but they were both academics. um, but there was an enormous love of the arts. i was always taken to the theatre, opera, symphonies. my mother loves opera. what are your earliest memories of favourite films? i would go to a place called the independent theatre, which would show films,

and we were all allowed to flop around on bean bags. they didn't have chairs, they didn't have seats, they had bean bags. and you were allowed to run around as kids and you would watch the movie. and one of the first movies i remember seeing was a film called walkabout, which was an australian film. isn't that crazy? so that was a very... that's a very strong imprint cinematically, and then i would be taken to the theatre, and that was probably my first love, was theatre. i remember getting up on stage, i remember watching, you know, those outrageous, fun, erm, funny, erm, pantomimes, and that probably was some of my first desires to be on stage. were you a natural performer? did you always want to act? i was very tall and very pale and i had red curly hair and covered in freckles. i would fit in through theatre and reading and there was a shyness,

an innate shyness, but there was something i could do, which was act, and so whenever i went to drama school or would go... i would be able to get up on stage or read a scene or have just a very intuitive understanding of it immediately, and that was where i was able to express myself and i suppose, in a way, shine. and so that became a place where i felt very comfortable. the first big influence that you've chosen for this programme is the film—makerjane campion, best known for the piano and more recently the power of the dog. how did you meetjane campion? so, i was in a little drama school called the phillip street theatre. i would go on a saturday morning. i would get up at about 6:30am, i would catch a bus and a train and another bus to get into the city. it was the highlight of my week. and jane was in film school. so, she was, erm, really young, and i remember being told,

"oh, this woman who's going to be directing a little film, student film, would like to see you." and it was like, "ah! oh, my gosh!", you know. and that was jane. we're talking a0 years later i still know her. and still deeply close to her, actually. would tell her anything, will confide in her anything and feel unbelievably safe with her. did she become a mentor to you at such a young age? i don't know if jane's a mentor. jane is a very... is an exquisite creature. i think she's a creature, so she's... she's just unusual. she became a guide, she became someone that i would go, "what do you think?", you know, and there were times when we drifted and came back together and drift... i would audition.... i remember auditioning for sweetie. i didn't get it. i remember auditioning for another one of her films. i didn't get it. and then, finally, portrait of a lady came along, and she wanted me for that. there's a documentary about the making of

portrait of a lady in which we see you as isabel archer sobbing in between takes. jane campion is comforting you and keeping you in the moment. what's happening there? jane walks through it with you. she's intense, so she's, like, in your eyes, she's with you, she'll hold you... erm, she'll hold your hand, she'll feel it with you. but she's still the director, so she's watching and she's going, "0k, what can i do with this?" but i think i was incredibly young when i was working with her. i was very raw and, erm... and i thinkjust enormously, erm, trusting of her. is it sometimes really hard to step out of character when you finish shooting at the end of a day? yeah, it is sometimes. yeah. mm—hm. and there's certain roles that require not stepping out... ..and there's certain roles where you can be far more, erm... it happens more easily.

erm, i think i still grapple with how to do it. i would never say i'm.... i'm still learning. i'll always be learning. she laughs and i would never say i know what i'm doing. i don't mind not knowing everything. i don't mind not being in a place of leadership. i actually don't mind being in a place of being a part of it. it's part of being an actor because i always say, as an actor, you can't be a control freak, you have to be willing to give up control. jane campion spotted you, as you say, when you were 14 years old. it was only four years later, i think you were 18, when you were cast in dead calm, that psychological thriller set in the middle of an empty ocean. did that feel like a big breakfor you? it was enormous. it was one of those extraordinary things where at such a young age, i was given these chances and these opportunities with these world—class film—makers and writers. i was sort of launched that way.

i remember, you know, getting on a plane and going to america with dead calm and going, "wow." and i got off the plane in new york and it was like, "oh, wow, this is the city that has broadway." your character is facing a really tumultuous and terrible situation but maintaining this icy calm, this sense of control, something i think we've seen in many of the roles, many of the characters that you've played. i don't know if it's icy calm. i would hope it's resilience and it's the ability to find strength from within when all the odds are against you. i mean, that's a really interesting thing as a human being. i've been in that place where i myself have not known i've had the strength, not known i've had the fortitude to get through something and kind ofjust by stepping forward every day going, "i never knew i had this in me", you know, which is a wonderful thing to play as an actor. there is a psychological depth or a tension or a complexity,

i think, to many of the characters that you've played. do you draw any kind of link back to your father's work as a clinical psychologist, do you think? i would say more my upbringing gave me the sense of being able to see through different lenses, of notjudging, of... the compassion that was in my household, erm, was deep. there was never that judgment in our household where there was evil, good and evil. it was always far more complicated than that. the next big cultural influence that you have chosen is the film—maker stanley kubrick, with whom you worked on eyes wide shut, the last film that he made before he died. were you a big kubrick fan before you worked with? yeah, yeah. i think if you're a cinephile, then he's...he is the top. you see philosophy, you see ideas, you see extraordinary film—making and you see masterful command of his language... ..and nothing is the same.

every single one of his films. i mean, you would never predict what he was going to do next, and his knowledge was just abundant, and yet he was a mischievous, kind of fun, erm... ..extraordinary person to be around, so, coming into my life at that time — oh, wow. i mean, that wasjust a beautiful thing, to suddenly collide with him. which was the first film of his that you saw? clockwork orange. which was like, "what? !" by myself, where i wagged school and i went into a clockwork orange. i didn't understand any of it. i just sat there with my jaw like. .. "what?!", and i was deeply disturbed. and then i've always said i saw the shining and i made out to the shining, which says something really weird about me. so, i had my first kiss in the shining. that is just totally weird. so, i didn't see a lot of the shining, but, erm...

but, yeah, ithink it was my first... i can't believe i'm saying this — tongue kiss. i'd had a kiss on stage in spring awakening. so, anyway... she laughs erm, i have seen the film again and again, but, you know... now i'm blushing. erm, but, yeah, so i saw a clockwork orange. but anyway, i've seen all the films. a lot of them i didn't understand. i've seen them again and then understood them, had them explained to me, had them explained by film—makers, had them explained by... and, you know, and by stanley. i mean, can you imagine us getting stanley, who hated being asked, may i add, about the films and what something meant. i mean, his most... i think the question that irritated him the most is, "what does that mean?" and he'd be, like, "oh, please don't ask me that." eyes wide shut was a psychological thriller, though, based on the 1926 novella by arthur schnitzler, and you were cast with your then

husband, tom cruise, as a wealthy manhattan couple in a story about sex and infidelity and power and murder. why did you want to take on the role? why not? she laughs i remember the emails when we... faxes, actually, at that time, that were going back and forth, and it wasjust, like, "stanley kubrick's going to cast us in his film?" it was all so secretive and it was like being... like going into this, erm, otherworld. we didn't know we were going to be there for years. but i've always said... ..how great. i mean, i honestly would have shot that thing for five years. i didn't care. i'm with the greatest film—maker, i'm with my husband, i've got my kids there and we're working. wow! that's as good as it gets. we're not working on trash, we're working on extraordinary material. who cares how long it takes?

so you became personally close to him as well? yeah. and deeply enamoured with him. and he's a professor. it was like, i'd sit on the floor of his office and read books. he had books everywhere and it was a mess and he had a sign saying, "do not knock and do not come in", but i would ignore that, which he kind of liked, i think. you were allowed. i was a little wilful. i don't think he minded wilful. as i said, he was mischievous. he died just a few days, i think, after completing the final cut on eyes wide shut. i mean, that must have been a terrible shock for you. do you remember where you were when you heard the news? absolutely. i was in new york... ..and i... he'd sent me a fax and i said... i'd left him a message saying i'd call him in the morning. and when the phone rang, i thought it was stanley, and it was his assistant, leon. and leon said, "stanley kubrick is dead." and i remember dropping

the phone and screaming. screaming. and that was probably my first encounter with death, where it comes and a person you love is taken that quickly and it doesn't seem real, and it was horrendous. but having worked with him so intensely, what do you think was the lasting legacy of stanley kubrick on the work that you've done since? that it's art. don't be frightened of that. that it's important. his pursuit of excellence with itand his, erm... ..his lifetime dedication to it, i think, has had an enormous impact on me. do you ever, nicole, when you're faced with a difficult decision, a career decision, think, what would stanley do? yes, but i remember when i was doing the blue room and i was on stage and i chose to do a play at the beautiful donmar warehouse, i remember inviting stanley to come and see it. i had him read the play

and he sent it back to me going, "i can't read it." and i'm like, "oh, no, he read it, he doesn't like it." and so ijust remember he didn't want me to use him as a guide or a judge because i think he was so...had such a high bar, that everything wasn't going to be good, you know? so he didn't want to be that for me, but he came and saw me on stage in the blue room. he came to the theatre. that's a huge thing for stanley. there's a photo somewhere, i don't have it, i would love someone to find it for me, of him leaving the theatre. but it's so touching to me that he came because that's such a huge offering from him. and he came and saw me. i can't remember what he said. ijust remember, "stanley's in the audience." i think it's really interesting that the blue room is the next big moment that you've chosen — a really important moment in your career, being on stage in london in 1998.

interestingly, though, like eyes wide shut, it's adapted from a work by arthur schnitzler. yeah. is that a coincidence? it is? yes. i mean, if there is such things as coincidences. or it was meant to be. but, yeah, isn't that crazy? but it was, yeah. when sam said to me and patrick... sam mendes? yeah, yeah. sam mendes was like, "oh...". i'm like, "hold on. that's just totally weird. "la ronde? what? what" but what was so just enthralling about that was that sam believed i could play the five different characters. and that was like, you know, as an actor, i was like, "oh, wow, play all of them? ok, that's kind of exciting. on stage? wow. yeah." i look back on that and i think... and i wasn't that scared. i didn't have stage fright to the degree that i had it when i did photograph 51, which i've now learned a lot

of actors get the stage fright, it becomes more intense as you get older, so i'm one of those people. it was in a very small london theatre, a two—hander with iain glen, and a really exposing role both physically and emotionally. did it feel like a risk? it felt like an amazing chance. it felt like i was back in sydney and i think i've approached my whole career this way. i feel like i've just come out of, you know, the phillip street theatre, and i'm like, "oh, wow, this is a great, great chance. "yeah, let's try this", because i don't overthink stuff until i'm in it, and then i'm like, "yikes! what have i done? i've got to run for the hills." erm, and by then, you're not allowed out, and i'm sort of well known now for going, "i've got to get out of this. i'm not going to be able to deliverfor you. help, help, help." but it was 17 years, i think, until you were back on stage with photograph 51, also in london. why have you not done more theatre, do you think?

erm, i'm a mother, and it's very difficult as a mother, i find, to do the eight shows a week and to not be there at bedtime. that was... that's been a big... when i did photograph 51, it was a big commitment for me to come to london, move my family to london. my husband has a big career. you know, i didn't think it all through as, "oh, my gosh, you're going to have to sell tickets on the west end about a play about science with a woman that no—one�*s heard of." and i remember when the ticket sales at the beginning, i was like... and people were looking worried and i'm like, "are they not selling?" and this was before it had opened. and they're like, "yeah, it's ok." you know, they keep it all secret from you because they don't want you to lose complete faith. we were so lucky, and this is where you go, thank you, to the critics because the critics came out in incredible support of that play and the tickets sold. and suddenly it was sold out and you couldn't get a ticket.

but i think if we'd been crucified, the play would have closed. you know, we wouldn't have made it, because they certainly weren't selling on my name alone. but... ..it�*s so great doing theatre. it's so fun. when it works, it works. there's nothing like it. and you're immediate, and that's the thing i discovered doing it again, was this relationship with an audience that is so immediate and so direct. when the audience claps and cheers, there is so much gratitude as an actor because you're like, "i've given you what i can give you and you've received it. "thank you." just interestingly, back to... back to the blue room, though, because that was an adaptation of la ronde by schnitzler by david hare, and then shortly after that, you were working in another david hare adaptation. yes. and it was the hours, and you were playing virginia woolf. what did you learn from playing woolf, do you think? i mean, david hare gave me

one of the greatest monologues, you know, about choice, and it is "my choice". i still know those words and deeply believe in them, may i add. it is my choice as a human being. your next choice, a big turning point in your career, and you've already mentioned it, is baz luhrmann�*s musical moulin rouge. why have you chosen that? once again, took a massive chance with me. believed i could sing and dance and act in the same film. erm, gave me satine, who ijust became and loved, and people still think i am. she laughs and, erm... ..gave me that, and i watch that film, and i'm like, "i can't believe i made that. i'm so happy that exists. i'm so happy i got to be satine and i got to do it with ewan."

and i have such magical memories of it and i find the film magical and he's... baz is magical. you played satine, the consumptive courtesan, opposite ewan mcgregor as the struggling writer. was it the first time you'd sung professionally? i'd sung at drama school, when i would go to the little weekend drama schools. i was never that good. i always had friends who could belt it out, and i was never a belter. but baz, when i went and auditioned for him, he had me audition with the song, erm... # nobody does it better... # that song, which is not in the movie. erm, and i remembersort of acting singing it. and baz on set as a director, what did you take away from him? well, he's an actor. he started as an actor, so he can act it. erm, so you're getting that support, where he understands the actual process. he understands how to get you there. and he's very, erm... he's, you know...

but then he'll shape it. and he's also very visual. isn't it true that you broke a couple of ribs during the shooting of this movie? yeah, ifelland i broke a thing. but then, you know, they gave me the time and i was able to heal and onward, you know, which is, ithink, part of, just, i don't have a sense of my own physicality a lot of times, so i'll take risks, and then i'm like, "ooh, i've got to be careful." so my sense of what i want to do physically, i sometimes can't live up to what i want to do physically. you know, i wish i could fly. she laughs so you have this idea that you're capable of way more physically than you actually are. i mean, i have a quite fragile body. i think that's part of even, as an actor, sometimes emotionally i forget the fragility and protecting that and being careful is part of my lifelong lesson.

working in this, you know, all—singing, all—dancing musical with baz luhrmann, did it change your own idea of what you were capable of as an actor, do you think? yeah, yeah. pushed me. i'm not necessarily running out going, "i want to do another musical." but, yeah, it...it pushed me into places i didn't even know i was capable of going, which is what's happened on the lucille ball film, on being the ricardos, iwas like... i mean, physical comedy, that is so hard. i did a tiny bit of it in moulin rouge, i was reminded the other day. you know, where i do the... on the floor going, "ah, ah, ah." and that was all sort of improvised and so fun. so there was some physical comedy in that, but... ..lucy�*s physical comedy is clown. i mean, it's broad and extraordinary and she created all that and it was like, "oh!",

and my absolute, like... ..i cannot believe what she... what she did, and how she could get a laugh, and she would do anything fora laugh, and how wonderful that is — releasing into physical comedy that way. it's so fun. but with a character like satine, you're creating... you're creating a character from scratch with virginia woolf. you're interpreting a historical character. with lucille ball, it has to be more of an impersonation, i guess. no. you have to study her. no, no. i mean, study her, but aaron sorkin was adamant it wasn't to be an impersonation. he was like, "i don't want an impersonation." in recent years, you've become a producer as well. you brought us big little lies and the undoing and nine perfect strangers. do you have any ambitions to direct as well? no. they laugh not at all? no. i love being an actor. as i said, i don't have the...

i don't have the control. i don't want to make the big decisions. i want to be part of the group. i don't want to be the leader. i'm happy to be in the group. erm... i don't want to be the director. really? but i asked that, nicole, because you've worked with so many great independent directors. i want to support them. i'm happy to support them. i love to support them. i want to find them, i want to support them, i want them to have the chance to do their work. but having seenjane campion or gus van sant or lars von trier or anthony minghella, any of these directors, at close hand, you don't think, you know, you could take what you've seen, what you've experienced, and then reinterpret it? no. really? you really don't want to direct, do you? i believe a director is a director. there is... they've wanted to do it. i'm watching my daughter right now. i'm watching her. she only wants to be a director. that's all she wants to do.

she's obsessed with being a director. and i do believe the great directors, that's what they do. so, ijust... that's not for me. i want to be an actor. i...i...iam open. i'm always ready to go on the nextjourney. i cannot believe i still have the passion for that because i've been working since i was 1a. so if ever there was a reason to believe that it's in your blood, it's just in my blood, and i do say it's not a choice. i've tried to not do this and i actuallyjust keep coming back to it. it is... it keeps me sane. it's my... it's my path. it's my voice. it's how i express myself. and it's how i'm part of this world. nicole kidman, thank you very much indeed. she laughs thank you.

for podcast episodes of this cultural life, go to bbc sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. hello. we start off the first day ofjuly on a fairly fresh, unsettled sort of note with sunshine and showers. certainly it's a little bit cooler than much ofjune. in fact, it looks likejune is going to turn out to be the warmestjune on record in the uk. so we've got some blue skies and sunshine already starting to break through. really, through the rest of the weekend, that mix of sunny spells and scattered, blustery showers, but most of the showers will be across the northern half of the uk. yesterday's cloud is exiting towards the east, and we've got clearer skies now rolling in from the atlantic, still bearing a few showers with them. most of the showers

for the rest of the day will be across scotland and northern ireland. more persistent rain, in fact, across the far north of scotland, but easing away gradually through this evening and overnight. so a dry end to the day. then, as we head through to the early hours of sunday morning, it will be a little bit cooler and fresher than it was first thing saturday morning. so temperatures in the countryside just about getting down into single figures. so through the day tomorrow, then, we've still got low pressure sitting out towards the north—east of the uk. the winds are rotating around that low pressure, bringing us a few showers. a bit like today, most of the showers tomorrow will be across parts of scotland and northern ireland. there will be more persistent rain for the likes of caithness and sutherland up towards the northern isles at times. lots of sunshine further south. still a bit of a breeze blowing, probably not quite as strong as it is out there today. temperatures just down a notch, so between about 1a to 22 north to south on sunday. no great change in the weather as we roll through to the new working week as well. if you have got tickets to the ashes, of course, at lord's, that continues — it looks like a dry day tomorrow, temperatures about 21 degrees, and a noticeable breeze

coming in from the west. now, moving through sunday night and on into monday, there is that low pressure not moving in a hurry, sitting across parts of scandinavia, so more showers rotating in on that west or north—westerly breeze, pushing into parts of northern ireland, western scotland through the morning. later in the day, some of those showers arrive across england and wales. but it is eastern areas that will keep driest for the longest on monday. temperatures between about 13 to 21 degrees. all in all, much of the week ahead is looking fairly unsettled, so there will be some showers at times. some sunshine in between those showers as well, so not a complete write—off. but it looks like it will be a bit drier and warmer at least in the south, later in the week. some of those showers could affect the championships, which, of course, begin at wimbledon. goodbye. goodbye.

live from london. this is bbc news. more than a thousand arrests in france following a fourth night of violence, officals say a state of emergency cannot be ruled out. i'm rajini vaidyanathan, live in lille. here, authorities are bracing themselves for another night of unrest. energy bills fall in britain — as a new price cap comes into force. and to the final frontier — the european space agency launches its euclid telescope hoping to shed light on the dark side of the universe.