“I have to tread carefully”: Nicole Kidman’s Biggest Fear About Acting Still Stands Even After Her 41 Year Long Career

In the world of entertainment, it is often observed that some actors seem to become their characters, while others just play pretend. Some actors find it much easier to switch between their real personality and their on-screen character, while others get so deep into the character that it almost becomes impossible to notice the real personality.

Talking about playing characters, Nicole Kidman is someone who has a career spanning over four decades, and the actress has played all sorts of characters. But even after having such a secure career, Kidman has a fear of her acting roles.

Nicole Kidman’s Empathy Toward Her Characters

Nicole Kidman began her career in Australia when she was just 16, and her filmography is proof of her versatility. She has also played many characters in the drama and psychological thriller genres, and some of her roles were quite demanding mentally.

For instance, when she portrayed Virginia Woolf in The Hours, she wore a prosthetic nose and studied Woolf’s writings and biography to get into character. For The Others, she stayed in isolation to build her character’s sense of paranoia. For Big Little Lies, she observed a domestic abuse survivor to understand the complexities of her character’s situation.

Things like these show her dedication to getting to know her role properly. However, it all comes with a cost. In a recent conversation with L’Officiel USA, Kidman revealed,

I obviously feel things really, really, really deeply. My mother would always say, raising me, it was raising a highly sensitive child. Part of my path in life is learning not to be so overly empathetic with people that it destroys me or sabotages me, because I can move into other people’s skin and psyche in a very weird way.

Kidman revealed that she can physically and emotionally manifest different characters she sees around, which can be “frightening at times.” The actress knows the risk and admits that she doesn’t want it to affect her so deeply that she becomes unable to function properly.

Yes, I do the acting, but at the same time, there’s a part of me that, when it’s connected to the right role, is all-encompassing and a bit frightening where I go. I have to tread carefully.

It looks like Kidman has an uncontrolled superpower to get under her characters’ skin, and she can’t do anything about it. However, apart from the aforementioned films, she had many instances where she felt her character had hijacked her real personality.

Times When Nicole Kidman Merged Into Her On-Screen Characters

Kidman also talked about her upcoming film Babygirl, where she plays a businesswoman who is having an extramarital affair with a much younger intern. The actress revealed in a Vanity Fair interview that she felt “very exposed as an actor, as a woman,” but still she was “compelled to do it.” 

Another example is her character from Destroyer. Kidman didn’t just play a cop, she became one. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kidman revealed that she stayed in character the whole time they were filming and even learned how to shoot guns at a range near her house.

Moreover, Kidman took it up a notch for Nine Perfect Strangers. The actress confessed to Deadline that she stayed in character as Masha for five whole months and even stopped responding to her own name. Moreover, for Rabbit Hole, she got so into her character that she completely ignored her co-star Miles Teller on set (via The Daily Telegraph).

These were some more examples of how Kidman took method acting to another level. Some may doubt her approach, but looking at her career and awards, it seemed to have worked pretty well for her, although she had to pay the price at times with her physical and mental health.