THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 11, 1995 TAG: 9510110059
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
NICOLE KIDMAN, tall and statuesque with strawberry-blond hair hanging to her shoulders, smiled and flashed a fetching little flirtatious almost-wink when asked the infamous T.C. question.
It's the question that has to be asked, even of the actress who is emerging as this year's breakout star: ``How do you handle being Mrs. Tom Cruise?''
``One way to handle it is to ignore it,'' she said, turning serious. ``I don't think that being married to somebody you're in love with is a burden.''
Although she's worked steadily in films, and is the leading lady of this year's biggest commercial hit, ``Batman Forever,'' there are still those who think of her as the Australian actress who married the world's most famous young movie star.
Cruise makes $20 million a movie, so why is she out looking for work?
``In the sense of being judged in a certain way, yeah, I was put in a particular mold,'' she said, ``but all that is starting to change, and that's great. For me, it's a relief.''
Her latest film, ``To Die For,'' is helping spur the change. The dark comedy was directed by former maverick Gus Van Sant and written by wisecracker Buck Henry (author of ``The Graduate''). Kidman is so good in it that she's sure to get an Oscar nomination.
Kidman plays Suzanne Stone, a small-town girl who aspires to become a television star - perhaps the next Jane Pauley. She wants fame, at any cost, and sees TV as the highest of ambitions.
``In America, you're nothing if you're not on TV,'' Suzanne reasons. ``What's the use of doing something good if nobody's watching?''
Suzanne lands a job as weather girl on a cable-access station. Calling herself an ``on-air correspondent,'' she assembles an all-pastel wardrobe and begins putting on starlike airs. When she serves dinner to her working-class husband (Matt Dillon), she points out that ``this is the dish they serve in Johnny Carson's favorite restaurant in Hollywood.''
Her husband, Larry, who runs an Italian restaurant with his father, takes all this in stride, declaring that she is his ``golden dream girl.'' But Suzanne tires of his ordinariness, and when he wants her to give up TV and be a real wife, she takes drastic steps. She encourages the dumb-dumb teenage boy she's filming for a dubious documentary to kill him. In return, the teen gets a life of sexual ecstasy.
As a satire of a world in which Kato Kaelin and the Bobbits are instant celebrities, the Suzanne Stone character emerges as one of the top movie villainesses of the decade.
``To Die For,'' though, is also likely to unleash a new round of speculation. Just how much is Mrs. Tom Cruise acting here? Is she as ambitious as the character she's playing?
After all, if she were, wouldn't this be an obvious scenario:
(1) Come from an upper class family that sends you to ballet school; (2) become a child star, winning Australia's ``best actress'' award at age 17; (3) appear in breakthrough thriller ``Dead Calm,'' which attracts the attention of Hollywood; (4) co-star with America's most famous young movie star in the race car film ``Days of Thunder''; (5) marry him; (6) stay visible in films like ``Malice'' and ``My Life''; (7) star in a major commercial hit like ``Batman Forever'' as the girl who wants to ``get under the cape'' of the lead; (8) score a breakthrough triumph and Oscar nomination with an offbeat comedy like ``To Die For''; (9) win the Oscar (next year) for starring in Jane Campion's version of the Henry James novel ``Portrait of a Lady.''
And what would step No. 10 be?
Nicole Kidman, fresh off the plane from London, where she is working on ``Portrait of a Lady,'' sat in a New York hotel room and pooh-poohed the whole idea.
``Tom is good enough to let me do all this work,'' she said. ``He supports me in that way, but I don't think I'm overly ambitious at all. I think this image came about because of that attack in Vanity Fair magazine. Before that, people were saying I wasn't ambitious enough and wasn't working enough. Ambition is something you have but don't necessarily have to be into. Besides, you can't plan an acting career. You're up one moment and down the next - all over the place. Sometimes you're hot; sometimes you're cold.
``As long as you're in it for the right reasons, it's fine - not for the money, not for the fame.''
In her enthusiasm, she almost slipped off her chair. ``Ooops! Now I guess you'll write that I was drunk,'' she said with a laugh. ``I'm not. Almost wish I was.''
She admitted, though, that her advisers had told her not to take the role of Suzanne Stone ``because people wouldn't like me. I find that so myopic.''
She went after the part with a determination that would be the rival of Joan Crawford's grabbing that wire hanger.
``I think it is true that Nicole wants very much to be a movie star,'' said director Van Sant. ``Her determination to do the part was very attractive. I felt that if she wanted to do it that badly, she would bring a great deal to it.''
The part of Suzanne was originally offered to Meg Ryan, who turned it down at about the same time she turned down ``Beyond Rangoon.''
``Dark comedies are my favorite kind of movies,'' Kidman said. `` `Dr. Strangelove' is one of my favorites. Knowing the lack of good parts for women, I realized this was a great part when I read it. When it was offered to another actress, I gave up. When I heard it was open again, I got Gus' home phone number and phoned him to ask if I couldn't, please, do this part. He gave me the part on the phone.''
Kidman prepared for the role for 3 1/2 months, checking into a Santa Barbara hotel and looking at television for three straight days. ``It can by hypnotic,'' she said. ``I can see how some people could get to the point that they live by what they watch. I studied, particularly, certain weather girls and TV newscasters. I'm not playing a famous person but a girl at the beginning of development. I had to develop a gawky walk for her. I contributed to choosing her clothes. They had to look like things she would think were just great, but weren't.''
Van Sant said, ``Nicole and I worked together on creating Suzanne every step of the way. It was a partnership thing.''
Born in Hawaii, Kidman spent her childhood in Australia, making her movie debut at age 14 in ``Bush Christmas.'' But she talks as if movies were not her first choice for a career. ``I never thought of movies,'' she said. ``My mother was a book editor and my father is a psychologist and doctor. I, at first, wanted to be a lawyer - then a journalist. Then I got involved with a street mime group - wearing masks and such. For the first 10 years of my life, I studied ballet, wearing weird shoes and making my feet twist around so that they'll never be right for life.''
At age 15, she played the princess in Tennessee Williams' ``Sweet Bird of Youth.'' It was the 1985 mini-series ``Vietnam'' that made her a star in Australia, and at age 17, she won that country's award as best actress of the year. ``Dead Calm'' drew the attention of moviegoers on this side of the Pacific.
With husband Cruise she starred in both ``Days of Thunder'' and ``Far and Away,'' but his name is not mentioned in her official studio biography. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in ``Billy Bathgate.''
The Cruises have two adopted children and several homes. He has also been in London recently, working on the big-budget version of ``Mission: Impossible,'' which is set to be released at Christmas.
Cruise's stepbrother once worked at the Virginia Beach office of The Virginian-Pilot. She denies, though, that the couple ever considered buying a home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. ``I would know,'' Kidman said. ``I think real estate people put out those reports.''
She's been preparing for two years to play the lead in ``Portrait of a Lady,'' the much-awaited film from Campion, who made ``The Piano.'' Kidman had the inside lead for the role because Campion, a native of New Zealand, had known her work since the actress was a child.
``Jane and Gus are very similar,'' Kidman said. ``They both come from a background of making low-budget, independent films. They're good at using what they have. I've done so much work, so much preparation, for the part that it's almost a threat to now be filming it.''
She declares that she and Cruise would like to appear in another film together ``but it's the matter of finding the right script.''
Does art imitate life? For Cruise's sake, we hope not. Home life could be a bit shaky if you had Suzanne Stone in the house. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
In ``To Die For,'' Nicole Kidman plays a sexy weather girl who is
determined not to let her husband (Matt Dillon, above) stand in the
way of her ambition.
1. The thriller ``Dead Calm'' was Kidman's breakthrough film.
2. ``Far and Away'' united Kidman with husband Tom Cruise in
starring roles.
3. ``Batman Forever'' was the year's biggest commercial hit and a
big boost to her career.
Photo
STEPHEN VAUGHAN/Paramount Pictures
Nicole Kidman and husband Tom Cruise co-starred in the racing film
``Days of Thunder.''
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