LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman said these words, but almost everyone who took the stage at the AFI Life Achievement Award presentation agreed: “ Nicole Kidman. She makes movies better.
The phrase came in a video parody of Kidman’s AMC Theaters “we make better movies” commercial that opened Saturday night’s ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The crowd of multi-generational stars brought huge laughs as they honored the 56-year-old Australian’s 40-year career, which includes roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and an Oscar-winning turn in “The Hours.”
Meryl StreepKidman’s co-star in “The Hours” who presented Streep with the Life Achievement Award she herself won in 2004, drew almost as many laughs when, in a mocking, conceited voice, she described the hardest part of being “constantly called the greatest.” actress of my generation.
It’s when you meet someone else who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and you realize that they did things that you couldn’t do, like that. is produced with Kidman on the first day they worked together on the HBO series. “Big little lies,” Streep said.
Streep and their “Big Little Lies” co-star, Reese Witherspoon, both did spot-on impressions of Kidman, complete with Australian accents, that angered the audience.
Streep also brought Kidman to tears as she described what she thought motivated her.
“People call it bravery when an actress puts herself out there and steps out into the unknown and dives deep into the darkest parts of what it means to be a human being,” Streep said. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she loves it.
Kidman broke down in tears for the first time in the evening when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith Urban, said she showed him “what love in action really looks like” when his substance abuse problems emerged almost immediately after their marriage in 2006.
“Four months after we got married, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban said, looking at Kidman where she sat on a stage with their two daughters and other family members. “Nic pushed through all the negative voices, even some of her own, I’m sure, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.
Kidman said it was the first time she allowed their teenage daughters to join her on a red carpet. She also has two children with her first husband, Tom Cruise.
She accepted the AFI award at the same venue where she accepted her Oscar in 2003 for her role as Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
She thanked all the directors she worked with by name, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.
“It’s a privilege to make films. And it’s glorious to have made films and TV shows with these storytellers that allowed me to go wild and be free and play all these unconventional women,” said Kidman, dressed in a long shimmering golden dress “Thank you for improving my profession and giving me a place, even if temporary, in this world.”
It was announced in November 2022 that Kidman would receive the award, first presented in 1973, including Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony was originally scheduled for June 2023, but was delayed due to Hollywood strikes. It will air on TNT on June 17.
Kidman was also nominated for Oscars for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Lion” and “Being the Ricardos,” whose director Aaron Sorkin also sang her praises at the ceremony.
Others paying tribute included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who took the stage disguised in one of the bizarre orgy masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Kidman began her career as a teenager in Australia in films like “Bush Christmas” and “BMX Bandits.” Naomi Watts, a friend at the time, described meeting Kidman when they both had to sit in a waiting room in swimsuits for two hours during an audition. Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett all paid video tributes to the first from their country to win the award.
Kidman said in a video played at the ceremony that her appearance in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm” turned her attention to, among others, Cruise, the only time his name was mentioned Saturday night.
She had her breakthrough role alongside him in 1990’s “Days of Thunder” — they would marry the same year — and also starred together in 1992’s “Far and Away” and in 1999’s final Kubrick film, ” Eyes Wide Shut.”
She divorced Cruise in 2001, but her fame only grew. Some of his biggest roles, as well as his Oscar, were yet to come.
The role most often cited as a favorite at the awards Saturday night was her musical turn in Luhrmann’s 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”
2011 AFI winner Freeman, in his in-person presentation following the video parody, serenaded Kidman with the altered Elton John lines she sings in the film: “How wonderful life is , now you are in the world. »
