Nicole Kidman has twice worked with Jane Campion, on 1996’s “Portrait of a Lady” and on the 2017 series “Top of the Lake: China Girl,” but Kidman revealed a big regret in turning down the opportunity to work with the auteur when Kidman was just a teenager.
Speaking to W Magazine, the actress revealed that Campion first tried to cast a 13-year-old Kidman while Kidman was in weekend drama school doing a production of Tennessee Williams’ play “Sweet Bird of Youth.”
“I was playing the Princess…and I had no understanding of what the actual text meant,” Kidman said. “The director Jane Campion came and sat in the back of that little theater and then cast me in one of her student films. But I didn’t do it — I didn’t want to wear a shower cap in the film and not look pretty.”
She added, “[It is a] huge regret. What a big regret!”
Kidman, who will soon be seen in A24’s “Babygirl,” previously told Deadline in 2022 about meeting Campion as a young actress and how the director was instrumental in shaping her career.
“She’s been such a champion for me. She’s given me work but she’s also given me courage and insight,” she said.
More recently, Kidman lauded Campion during her AFI Life Achievement Award acceptance speech in 2024. She deemed Campion one of her “friends for life.”
“It is a privilege to make films,” Kidman said while thanking “the storytellers who allowed me to run wild, be free, and play all these unconventional women. Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world. Thank you for inviting me into your movie families and thank you for my childhood dream that became a reality. And to the audiences who have stuck by me through everything, I just want to say thank you. There are so many little weird films I’ve done, and I know there are people out there … who stuck up for my weird choices, and I’m so grateful for that.”
