Nicole Kidman makes RARE comment about working with ex-husband Tom Cruise on Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut – and admits they had to share a trailer to save money
Nicole Kidman rarely speaks about her time as a married woman to Tom Cruise, but she recently made a rare foray when she discussed their work on Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Eyes Wide Shut.
The 57-year-old Oscar winner, who was married to Cruise, 62, from 1990 to 2001, detailed the relationship the married co-stars had with Kubrick during the filming of the dark drama in an interview with the BBC. Los Angeles Times.
She believed the director was “exploring” their marriage for material to direct the film, which premiered in 1999 and became a box office success after grossing $162 million against a $65 million budget, according to Cash register Mojo.
The Top Gun star and the Big Little Lies actress worked on the film for years, beginning production in 1996 and wrapping in 1998 before its summer release, earning the record for the longest continuous film shoot at 400 days. Kubrick would die at the age of 70, just days after reportedly showing his final cut of the film to the stars.
Kidman — whose daughter Sunday surprisingly reacted to a stoned scene in Eyes Wide Shut — described how the Clockwork Orange filmmaker quizzed her and Cruise about their marriage as he helped them craft their performances.
Nicole Kidman rarely speaks about her time as a married woman to Tom Cruise, but she recently made a rare outing when she spoke about their work on Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Eyes Wide Shut; pictured on June 13 in LA
The 57-year-old Oscar winner, who was married to Cruise, 62, from 1990 to 2001, detailed the relationship the married co-stars had with Kubrick during the filming of the dark drama in an interview with the Los Angeles Times; still from Eyes Wide Shut
There were ideas [Kubrick] interested. He asked a lot of questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling,” she recalled.
“I remember him saying, ‘Triangles are hard. You have to be careful when it’s a triangle,’ because one person might feel compromised,” she continued. “But he was aware of that and knew how to manage us.”
While she made it clear that she never felt “attacked,” she did admit that Kubrick treated his actors differently.
“There’s something in that equation,” she explained. “And Stanley liked women.
“He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely together on his character,” Kidman said.
She added that she puts her “boldness” into the character, though she clarified that her character’s blunt statements in a scene where she gets high are closer to her natural behavior and not necessarily drug-related.
While talking about the scene, she recalled a portion of the larger scene that they had been working on for weeks, but which ultimately ended up in the editing room.
“It was the scene with Tom and I where I start smoking a joint in bed and then I laugh and have a long monologue,” she said.
‘That took weeks. A lot of it was rehearsing in the bedroom and then [Kubrick] “We weren’t happy with what we had done. So we reworked it and built it as we went along,” she said. “There was no rush. Stanley would never go over budget. What he bought was time.”
She added that the scene came about through “just a lot of talking” between the three leads.
The actress also said that their work on the film began with a meeting at Kubrick’s home.
‘We didn’t even go to the sets at Pinewood [Studios]’, she admitted.
She believed that Kubrick ‘exploited’ their marriage to shape their performance
Kidman said Kubrick (second from left) was careful about “triangles” when working with her and Cruise, and that he made sure no one felt “hijacked”; pictured with Kubrick’s longtime assistant and brother-in-law Jan Harlan (left)
Kidman admitted that she and Cruise had to share a trailer to keep the budget down. He had his own place where he often played Minesweeper during his downtime; pictured in 1999
“Six, eight weeks went by and we were wondering, ‘Are we ever going to start?’ And we just didn’t want to start,” she recalled. “We got comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to share ideas. For that scene, we improvised the beginning of it in rehearsals.”
Cruise and Kidman were then, as they are now, two of the biggest stars in the world, and their marriage only served to heighten anticipation for Eyes Wide Shut.
But to afford the extraordinarily long shooting schedule – which gave the notorious perfectionist Kubrick ample time to shoot countless takes of multiple scenes – the couple had to make sacrifices to save the budget.
Instead of each getting their own trailer, as was customary for the stars of a major film, they had to share one trailer on set.
“We had a house 10 minutes away, but we lived in that trailer,” Kidman recalls. “Tom and I shared it because Stanley said, ‘You’re not both getting a trailer. We can’t afford it.'”
She added that her then-husband Cruise had a small spot in the trailer to himself where he often played video games, including Minesweeper, when they had free time between takes.
In Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise plays Dr. Bill Hartford, whose marriage to his wife Alice (Kidman) is in trouble when he obsesses over possible infidelity.
During a brief period of alienation, he wanders the streets of New York City – despite the film being shot entirely in the UK – before becoming entangled in the shady games of the elite.
She described weeks of rehearsals with Cruise at Kubrick’s home before filming even began, and she said that several classic lines were developed during rehearsals; still from Eyes Wide Shut
Kidman and Cruise have two adopted children from their marriage: Isabella, 31, and Connor, 29; pictured in Venice in 1999
The film features a long scene in which Cruise’s character gains access to a ball where rich, masked men indulge their sexual fantasies, only to realize that he is in grave danger.
Kidman and Cruise have two adopted children together from their marriage: Isabella, 31, and Connor, 29.
She later welcomed daughters Sunday, 16, and Faith, 13, with her husband Keith Urban, whom she married in 2006.
Cruise was married to actress Katie Holmes from 2006 to 2012. They have one daughter, 18-year-old Suri, who reportedly has little connection to her famous father.