Another day on the internet, another convoluted story about the meme’s origins.
In an interview with British GQ Released this week, Nicole Kidman nods to her many memes – her strange clappingher AMC ad – and says she’ll take it all, in the name of art. But she does have a few corrections: namely that she was clapping strangely because of the jewelry she was wearing at the time (“‘Because I had a huge, heavy borrowed ring on and it was really painful, and I was afraid of breaking the jewelry, ‘ she laughs), and that the iconic post-divorce celebration meme actually comes from filming a movie.
Only I stopped at the last reveal because as far as I can tell, that doesn’t seem to be true. Let’s go to the tapes (in this case the Internet).
Kidman claims in British GQ that the meme photo is definitely not ‘real’: ‘I wasn’t; that was from a movie, that wasn’t real life. I know that image!”
It appears the image was taken on August 8, 2001. (This assigned date was taken from Know your memeas best she could trace it. But more on that later.) That would have been about six months after she filed her divorce papers from Tom Cruise, and possibly during a break in her filming schedule: The hours filmed between January and June 2001. Dogvillethe next one she starred in did not begin filming until January 2002.
Even if these were part of reshoots, the outfit doesn’t seem to fit either film. Considering Nicole Kidman’s iconic sheer pink shirt and lime green pants in the photo don’t appear in any of her filmographies, here are a few options, if we take her word for it that it’s from a movie:
- It’s from a deleted scene of a movie – but I’m not sure which one that would be, as neither the look nor the atmosphere seem to reflect her work from that period.
- This comes from behind the scenesand ‘from a film’ is a slip of the tongue for ‘during the making of a film’. None of the roles she was in around this time seem to lend themselves to this kind of joyful celebration, but maybe it’s a deleted scene for a reason!
- She’s practicing for a music video since Kidman released a cover of “Somethin’ Stupid” with Robbie Williams in December of that year, which was a accompanying video. Neither of them have a real dance number in the video, certainly not as open and full-throated as Kidman appears here. But: Williams and Kidman are rumored to have been dating, which could add some spice to, say, walking down the street and grooving/practicing a cute love duet with your boyfriend. (Adding some complication to this theory: They may not have been romantically linked until a brief period in 2004. Who knows!)
I’m most convinced of the latter, but even then it’s a stretch to say Kidman thought this was “from a movie.” Again, I’m simply not convinced that this was “acting” insofar as she seems to call it – specifically – here by a movie, not just for one.
The plot only thickens (I know, as if we needed a thicker plot, when in fact we have discovered very little beyond “hmmm” here!) when we look at the culture of the time. There is one article in the Irish Independent of August 12, 2001claiming the photo was taken the week before (seemingly confirming the date of August 8). Kidman and Cruise finalized their divorce on August 10, 2001, and her law firm’s neighborhood provides the same vibe as the neighborhood. extended glimpses of her posture. The article goes on to claim:
The astonishingly emotional performance took place in the middle of a Los Angeles street. Yet it wasn’t a scene from one of the Hollywood star’s films. Instead, it was the 34-year-old actress’ way of celebrating the signing of the papers ending her marriage to Tom Cruise.
It happened as she left her lawyers’ office in Los Angeles after attaching her name to the quick divorce granted by the US Supreme Court last week. Six months after Cruise, 39, dropped the shocking news that he wanted a divorce, Miss Kidman celebrated her freedom with a shout-out that also served to vent her pent-up anger and frustration.
An onlooker said: “She walked out of the offices, threw back her head and arms and let out an astonishing scream. Halfway down the street, she cried as she walked. It was obviously a very emotional moment.”
Two important things to think about about Hollywood culture, especially for that period: (1) It is very common for paparazzi and celebrity gossip reporters to make up stories. (2) It is also very true that stars have worked with tabloids to get attention since time immemorial (or: the advent of Hollywood a century ago). The article goes out of its way to mention that Kidman (and Cruise, as producer) had a movie premiere for it The others also on August 10. Considering that at the time, according to reports, she and Cruise were engaged in protracted legal battles and “sole proprietorship in the field of public relations”, it seems likely that this divorce performance could be just that: a performance. It may be advantageous to flood the headlines with something that counteracts the release of her new erotic thriller, thus gaining traction in the story.
These are all things that, 23 years later, she can’t say directly when asked. More importantly, we don’t need to confirm that the photos are related to Kidman’s divorce filing to celebrate them in meme form. Memes aren’t really about the original situation from which we get them; they are whatever meaning we give them. You see that with something like Pepe the Frog, whose meaning changed dramatically when he became an emblem for far-right posters. But you can also see that in other pop culture memes – when people hear Don Draper’sI don’t think about you at all‘ As a punchline, they don’t really think about how Don do think (and sometimes even feel threatened by) Ginsberg. It’s just a snappy way to tell someone they’re reaching. Where someone can post Kidman’s photos commemorate their own divorce is her own point of reference, regardless of whether she says they are from a movie and therefore not “real.”
There isn’t much monoculture in the zeitgeist anymore. Something that flows over X – your Brat memes or campaign strategies based on DNC vibes may hardly reach friends of yours who are not on the platform. Memes like these don’t just snowball around the internet because they’re easy to repost and reinterpret; it is because the emotion we convey to them covers them with an innate feeling and shared understanding, smoothing out cracks in understanding like water on dry clay. I think Nicole Kidman did this parade, and maybe these photos do too for a film (promotion) instead of by An. But it doesn’t really matter. We can all feel what that photo really means. Like Kidman, I welcome the opportunities we get to perform little moods like this with open arms, basking in the warm glow of sweet, sweet relief; a joke that we were happy to bring into the world.