Nicole Kidman talks about Rabbit Hole, the challenging film which was a labour of love for the Australian star.
In Rabbit Hole, Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play a married couple in mourning, grappling with the death of their 4-year-old.
The story is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire; an observational view of a grief-stricken marriage struggling to return to normalcy.
Despite its unappealing subject matter, the movie is entertaining and, surprisingly, not without humour.
Keeping in tone with the play, Kidman was careful not to delve into any button-pushing melodrama.
"What I love is that the film is very, very real, brutally real at times; not in a big way, not in a histrionic way but in a simple way. This is a couple who want to stay together. They're not sure how to do it but they're taking it day by day, which is the only way they're ever going to step through it," she says. "And what I learned through researching this subject is that 80 per cent of marriages don't make it."
Kidman is no stranger to exploring difficult subject matter and stepping out of her comfort zone. The evidence is there in movies such as: The Hours (for which she won an Oscar), Eyes Wide Shut, or Birth. But the loss of a child is a source of misery from which one doesn't recover. Which begs the question, why go there at all?
"Yes, it was painful but in a good way, if that makes sense," smiles Kidman. People have often accused me of being a masochist. I'm not. I mean, I don't think I am just because I tend to go and choose things that hurt me but I don't see it as that. I see it as just wanting to understand all different facets of the human condition.
"That's it. And I'm very fortunate as an actor to have the opportunity to go into this labyrinth of life, and feel other people's existence."
The movie is directed by John Cameron Mitchell whose left-field credits (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) would make him seem unlikely for a straight couple domestic drama.
As a producer Kidman says of her choice of director "was just pure gut instinct".
"Yes, he's not your obvious choice, given that Shortbus was so bizarre, but I thought he had the ferocity and the rawness necessary to do this movie. He would sob on the set when we were working. That's unusual. It's also really lovely as an actor so you don't feel that you're out at sea alone."
Not surprisingly, it wasn't an easy feat to get Rabbit Hole to the screen. She recalls, "I spent four years getting it made. That was long, and we were constantly told 'No, you are not going to be able to raise the money'. But my producing partner and I were relentless. We managed to raise 3.5 million dollars, and got it made."
At age 43, Kidman is happily married to New Zealand-born Australian husband Keith Urban, 43, since 2006, and they have two daughters: Sunday Rose, born in July 2008, and Faith Margaret, born via a "gestational carrier" in December last year. Kidman was famously married to Tom Cruise from 1990 for 10 years and they adopted two children together: Isabella, 18, and Connor, 16.
In Los Angeles to promote the movie, her renowned glacial demeanour is not evident today. She smiles easily, is engaging and down-to-earth.
She's endured her share of public struggles, including her humiliating divorce from Cruise and a run of box office bad luck and bad career choices, especially when it came to blockbusters.
But sitting here with her now, she typifies the cliche of "having it all".
She takes a breath. "Well, I'm in my 40s now, and miraculously, I have a baby girl. I never thought it was going to be part of my trajectory that I was going to give birth to a child, so that was just completely unpredictable and out of nowhere. I think I'd reached a point where I wasn't sure whether I was going to meet somebody," she offers, unusually candid about her private life.
Sipping water, she continues about the life lessons she's learned. "And so now in my 40s, I'm kind of amazed at, though what appeared in my 30s was the feeling that I'm never going to have those things, I now have them. So, by contrast of not having them, I'm so grateful. At the same time, I've had a very erratic career, and by no means has it been stable," she laughs. "It's been up and down, and right now I'm in a place where I've been able to do some work that kind of sits very well with who I am.
"But, I mean in terms of 'having it all?' I'm not sure what having it all is. Have I found some peace inside me? Yes. Am I grateful for the love in my life and the people that I am now sharing my life with? Absolutely, because I have been in the other place as well." She pauses. "And that's what life is. It's contrasts."
And in contrast to her relationship with Cruise, who is usually portrayed as controlling and somewhat maniacal, Urban seems like a true partner.
"I feel loved and I feel absolutely that I offer exactly the same thing back. Because for me, our relationship, making it through is more important than anything. At the same time, I stay in that place of humility with it. I'm not a big fan of the, 'Hey!"' she says, waving her arms and smiling.
"We just do the work to stay together and a lot of that is just pure enjoyment of each other. But it's a very tricky place to walk through and to be able to explain to people because it's ours and it's so delicate."
LOWDOWN
Who: Nicole Kidman
What: Rabbit Hole opens at the World Cinema Showcase, Sky City Theatre, April 1
- TimeOut
