Los Angeles California –
Morgan Freeman spoke the words, but nearly everyone who took the stage at the AFI Life Achievement Award presentation agreed: “Nicole Kidman. “She makes movies better.”
The phrase appeared in a video parody of Kidman’s AMC Theaters “we make better movies” announcement that opened Saturday night’s ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The crowd of multigenerational celebrities there had a lot of laughs to honor the 56-year-old Australian’s 40-year career, which included roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and an Oscar-winning film. “The hours.”
Meryl Streep, Kidman’s co-star in “The Hours” who presented Streep with the Life Achievement Award she herself won in 2004, drew almost equally big laughs when, in a mock-bragging voice, she described the hardest part of being “incessantly calling.” “the best actress of my generation.”
It’s when you meet someone who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and you realize they did things you couldn’t do, like Kidman did on the first day they worked together on the show. from HBO. “Big little lies,” Streep said.
Streep and her “Big Little Lies” co-star Reese Witherspoon did spot-on impressions of Kidman in an Australian accent that had the audience laughing.
Streep also made Kidman cry by describing what she believed motivated her.
“People call it bravery when an actress bares it all and leaps into the unknown and dives deep into the darkest parts of what it is to be a human being,” Streep said. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. “I think she just loves it.”
Kidman cried for the first time that night when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith Urban, said he showed her “what love in action really looks like” when her substance abuse problems surfaced almost immediately after they married in 2006.
“Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban said, looking at Kidman, who was sitting on a stand with her two daughters and other family members. “Nic ignored all the negative voices, I’m sure even some of his own, and he chose love. And here we are, 18 years later.”
Kidman said that night was the first time she allowed her teenage daughters to accompany her on a red carpet. She also has two children with her first husband, Tom Cruise.
She received the AFI award in the same place where she accepted her Oscar in 2003 for playing Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
He thanked by name all the directors he has worked with, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.
“It is a privilege to make films. And it’s glorious to have done movies and television with these storytellers who allowed me to go crazy and be free and play all these unconventional women,” Kidman said, dressed in a floor-length sparkly gold dress. “Thank you for making me better.” my craft and giving me a place, even if temporary, in this world.”
In November 2022 it was announced that Kidman would receive the award, first given in 1973, whose previous winners include Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony was originally scheduled for June 2023, but was delayed due to Hollywood strikes. It will air on TNT on June 17.
Kidman was also nominated for Academy Awards for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Lion” and “Being the Ricardos,” whose director, Aaron Sorkin, also praised her at the ceremony.
Others who honored her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who took the stage dressed in one of the creepy orgy masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Kidman began her career as a teenager in Australia in films such as “Bush Christmas” and “BMX Bandits.” Naomi Watts, a friend from those days, described her encounter with Kidman when they both had to sit in a waiting room in bathing suits for two hours in Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett paid video tribute to the first of their country to win the award.
Kidman said in a video played at the ceremony that her appearance in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm” caught the attention of, among others, Cruise, the only time her name was called on Saturday night.
She had her breakthrough role in Hollywood alongside him in 1990’s “Days of Thunder” (they would marry the same year) and they also starred together in 1992’s “Far and Away” and in 1999 in Kubrick’s last film, “Eyes Wide Shut.” .
She divorced Cruise in 2001, but her stardom only grew. Some of her biggest roles and her Oscar were yet to come.
The role most cited as a favorite during Saturday night’s awards show was his musical performance in Luhrmann’s 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”
Freeman, a 2011 AFI honoree, in his in-person appearance following the video parody, serenaded Kidman with the modified Elton John lines he sings in the film: “How wonderful life is, now that You are in the world.”