Nicole has adoption on her mind: Actress and husband Keith Urban say they haven't ruled out adding to their family
Nicole Kidman (pictured) and her husband Keith Urban have not ruled out the possibility of adopting more children
Nicole Kidman and her husband Keith Urban have not ruled out the possibility of adopting more children.
The Oscar-winning actress has four children already: two with country singer Urban (daughters Sunday Rose and Faith), and two from her marriage to Tom Cruise (Bella and Connor, both in their early 20s). But Kidman said adopting again is ‘something I have thought about’.
She laughed and noted that eight-year-old Sunday Rose and her five-year-old sister ensure that she and her husband (who’ve been together for more than a decade now) ‘have got our hands full at the moment’. ‘But you never say never about children, do you?’
Kidman, 49, and I had been chatting about her new film, Lion. She plays Sue Brierley: a Tasmanian woman who, with her husband, adopted a five-year-old boy from India.
The youngster, Saroo, is played by an unknown called Sunny Pawar — who almost steals the movie. Saroo gets lost when he’s out riding on trains with his older brother, and finds himself on the streets of Calcutta, 930 miles away from his family in Khandwa.
Eventually, he’s adopted by Brierley and her husband in Australia. The grown-up Saroo (Dev Patel) tries to learn about his background by using Google Earth.
Directed by Garth Davis; and produced by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman: two of the producers behind The King’s Speech, it’s a classy tearjerker.
Nicole was deeply moved when she read the screenplay. ‘Of course, when I choose things I have to be emotionally connected. And with this, I was — through the adoption,’ she said.
‘Also, there’s the power of the unconditional love that a mother gives. A mother is there, whether it’s Sue Brierley in the film, or me with my children.’
The Oscar-winning actress (pictured with her husband left and their children) has four children already: two with country singer Urban (daughters Sunday Rose and Faith), and two from her marriage to Tom Cruise (Bella and Connor, both in their early 20s)
She joked and said she was going into ‘Earth Mother mode’. We discussed a scene where Dev, as Saroo, asks Nicole’s character about having children of her own. ‘She says: “I didn’t want children of my own. I wanted you.”
‘It’s important to emphasise,’ she added, ‘because a lot of times, with adoptive parents, people think: “Oh, it’s for other reasons.” People have said that to me; and they said it to Sue. But when it’s the choice, it’s just the choice. She talks about the vision she had of adopting the children; and I relate to that. It happened to me, too.’
The film, which has been garnering awards season attention, opens here on January 20. Harvey Weinstein, who’s distributing it, will host a special screening in London on Tuesday.
Back in the U.S., Nicole has been busy, playing a headmistress in Sofia Coppola’s film The Beguiled, set in the American Civil War. Colin Farrell plays an injured soldier found in the woods behind the school. ‘We bring him in, and things start to happen,’ Nicole said, as she was helped into a corset during filming. ‘It’s an old-fashioned one, with all the strings,’ she said — of the undergarment, not the film.
Hayley Squires — up for Best Actress at this Sunday’s British Independent Film Awards for her role in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake — has been cast by director Jamie Lloyd for his revival of Philip Ridley’s early play The Pitchfork Disney, which will run at Shoreditch Town Hall from January 27. Ridley’s black comedy also stars George Blagden (Louis XIV in Versailles on BBC2); up-and-coming actor Tom Rhys Harries; and Seun Shote.
Hayley Squires (pictured) — up for Best Actress at this Sunday’s British Independent Film Awards for her role in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake — has been cast by director Jamie Lloyd for his revival of Philip Ridley’s early play The Pitchfork Disney
The Pitchfork Disney will run with a series of Ridley monologues, grouped under the title Killer and starring John Macmillan, from February 22.
Lloyd told me the audience would be given headphones ‘to heighten the experience’.
‘You’ll be plunged into darkness, in the recesses of the town hall — and John MacMillan will be lurking there!’
The box office is on 020 7739 6176 or visit shoreditchtownhall.com.
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