AS PART OF OUR ‘WOMEN IN CREATIVITY’ SERIES, WE ARE DELIGHTED TO PUBLISH THIS SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH ACADEMY AWARD WINNER NICOLE KIDMAN FOR LIBERATUM. INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY OUR CREATIVE DIRECTOR, TOMAS AUKSAS.
What inspires your creativity?
I think the desire is always to connect and to understand. I am always looking for a well examined life, and creatively I think I was just born curious. I think I came out of the womb curious. I am curious how other people think, how other people feel. Expressing my own emotions allows me to understand the world and to understand the human condition
When we are young, we are all creative but why do some children stop being creative
You see it very early on in a child where they start off with confidence because their desire to please is so strong. But then something happens. A lot of children learn very early on the fear of failure and that stops you. It stops you drawing, it stops you from doing other things because you think you are not doing it correctly or right. I really believe creatively there isn’t a right or wrong. I always say that when I act, there is no right or wrong. There just is. Sometimes it is getting something people respond to and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it is going to fit into the film you are making and sometimes it isn’t. There is no right and wrong because when art is pure it is precious. That is what it is. When a child starts to paint, they are not painting in the right way that we consider correct. Who are we to stay that’s wrong. But what happens is that a child at school gets told ”you are not painting in the lines properly”, ”you are not doing it properly”, so they lose confidence before they have even begun.
In the last twenty years, technology has changed filmmaking enormously. What impact has it had on you as an actor and producer?
There are so many different avenues now where you can tell stories. Obviously I still hold the cinematic experience highly where you sit in a dark theatre and watch a movie and that for me is the ultimate. But if you can watch something on your iPad or another device, any form of storytelling that connects us all is powerful. A lot of us don’t have access to much money to make those stories. When you see something like ‘Tangerine’ being made, you go ‘fantastic’! The need for people to tell stories right now in the world is so important because that’s what really brings us all together. You look at even a TV show like ‘Transparent’ and the power of that politically in terms of say transgender rights, that is so important because all of those things are helping us understand and educating us. They are making us compassionate. I am a huge supporter of storytelling in any format. When it is done with passion and truth, and the right desire. When the agenda is pure.
What advice would you give to young actors today that are trying to succeed?
Never give up. Don’t let somebody break your spirit. Just know that everything can change on a dime. I have seen it happen over and over again. One minute you are struggling to get a job. You have spent twenty years not getting a job and suddenly overnight you get a job and your whole career changes. And that’s a fantastic thing for actors to always know. Everything can change on a dime. I love that.