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Thursday, 06 November 2008 22:27

Nicole Kidman has returned home to Australia to star in her latest epic romantic-adventure film, Australia, directed by Baz (Moulin Rouge!) Luhrmann and costarring fellow Australian Hugh Jackman. Ironically, she doesn't get to play an Aussie. The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actress-whose credits include To Die For, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, Cold Mountain and The Golden Compass-stars as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley in the epic film set in northern Australia during World War II. When Lady Ashley arrives in the outback to take over a sprawling ranch she has inherited, she reluctantly makes a pact with a cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to protect her new property from a takeover plot by cattle baron King Carney (Bryan Brown). This leads the pair, along with a young Aboriginal boy, Nullah (Brandon Davis), to drive 2,000 heads of cattle over unforgiving landscape to Darwin, where they experience firsthand the bombing of that city by Japanese forces. Married to Australian singer Keith Urban, Nicole gave birth to their first child, daughter Sunday Rose, on July 7. Australia opens soon in theaters everywhere. What does this movie mean to you? It's a movie I dreamed I would be able to make as a little Australian girl. I wanted to make a film in Australia about Australia, and even though this is not a historical or political film, it has an essence in the same way as the films I grew up on, like Gallipoli, Man From Snowy River and My Brilliant Career, and all those films that molded me. Hopefully, the generation behind me will watch this and be inspired by our film, too. What do you think is the appeal of this film outside Australia? Probably just to watch the scenes that Baz consistently chooses in his movies, because he is deeply romantic about family, land, love and a sense of freedom in terms of setting people free: You can't possess someone; you have to let them come back to you or walk away. Those sorts of themes are very universal. It's epic in its sensibility but it is very simple and fun, and set against landscapes in a country that hasn't been really explored on this level before. What can you say about Lady Ashley's journey in this film? It is ironic to go back to Australia to play an Englishwoman. But I become sort of what the essence of an Australian is, which is, I think, a survivor. I get stripped of all my barriers and pretenses and get stripped down and become this very raw, sensitive available human being. The film starts in a place of humor as far as Lady Ashley coming to Australia and not being ready for what she has to deal with. Baz is a unique filmmaker and it has his stamp on it, so there is a lot of humor that filters through and a quirkiness that is very Baz. What kind of preparation did you have to do? I have ridden horses all my life, but I'd never learned to crack a stock whip and I'd certainly never learned to do any cutting, which is what you do with cattle on a horse. So I had to work hard at that but, at the same time, I didn't need to do much else working with Baz because he and I have a language that is very established. He doesn't even have to talk to me and I understand him. He can just breathe and I know what his breathing means. I've worked with him on such a deep level that there is this tacit understanding. How did you and Baz come up with your character? The thing people don't understand is that the way it always starts with Baz is so small. At the beginning of the film, when we were trying to find the character, they came to Nashville and we were in a hotel room with a suitcase and a hat and a couple of props, and I'm on the back of the couch pretending to be on a horse and he's got the little video camera saying, "OK, NK, pretend you're riding to Drover!" It's like shooting a student film, and that is how we started. And that's the sensibility throughout the whole film, no matter what the scope. There were days where there was a very joyful, very abandoned approach to the creative process for all of us. NICOLE ON HER AUSTRALIA DIRECTOR "It's been said that I would walk over hot coals through fire for [Baz Luhrmann], and I probably would if he asked me. He's such a dedicated artist and a great human being." How was it working with the cattle? At first it was terrifying, but then it was addictive. To be up in Kununurra (northern Australia) in this extreme heat on the salt flats, riding and rounding up and cutting cattle, when else am I ever going to get the chance to do that? When I arrived in Kununurra and felt the harshness of that land and the heat, I thought I'd last two days there. But at the end of shooting there for two months, I was looking around to buy property, so that's how that land and that area captivated me. I hope more people go up there and see it because it's uncharted territory even for a lot of Australians. This is the equivalent of Africa in its own beautiful Australian way. Were there any surprises about making this film? I knew it was going to be physically demanding and emotionally demanding. There wasn't anything surprising because when I embark on a film with Baz, I know it's going to be extreme, so I'm prepared. Nothing happens in a small way. We had rain in torrential downpours and it never rained once up there for 11 years until we got up there. Then there was the equine flu, where suddenly the horses couldn't travel, so there were all of these big things. I got pregnant and I never thought in my lifetime that I would get pregnant and give birth to a child, but it happened on this movie. We had seven babies out of this film and only one was a boy. So there is something up there in that Kununurra water; we all went swimming in the waterfalls up there, so we call it the fertility waters now. How was this experience working with Baz after Moulin Rouge!? I deeply love him; words can't describe my devotion to him. It's been said that I would walk over hot coals through fire for him, and I probably would if he asked me. He's such a dedicated artist and a great human being. His enthusiasm and joy and love of life are inspiring, and I think that is why his movies do well. As much as they encompass love and loss and stories that aren't necessarily happy endings, they are still full of hope because he is the opposite of a misanthrope. NICOLE ON COSTAR HUGH JACKMAN "He is so honest and open and just such a good man. I knew him before but I got to know him on this film in a far different way. There is a lot of mystery to Hugh, which is good." How did you feel about Russell Crowe not being able to do the movie and Hugh Jackman stepping in? I believe actors end up doing the films they are meant to do for the right reasons. My commitment was to Baz and I would hope I get to work with Russell one day, but I was thrilled to be able to work with Hugh. He is so honest and open and just such a good man. I knew him before but I got to know him on this film in a far different way. There is a lot of mystery to Hugh, which is good. People say there is mystery to me and I'm pleased about that, because I don't think you should have to reveal everything and every part of you shouldn't be known-that's left for your loved ones. I also think that helps artistically, because then you can abandon into some parallel universe where you both exist as actors and artists, and you hope that out of that something good comes out. But Hugh is such a movie star, he glows. How was your relationship with the Aboriginal child in the film that plays your surrogate son, Nullah? He is just a magical child and his whole family is very magical. He has some special thing that orbits around him and we were very lucky to find him because he's not an actor; so capturing him on-screen, you had to grab the moments and what I call the glimpses of his soul. Were you a fellow actor, friend or mother on set with him? I think I was all those things rolled into one, but he could make my day just by coming up and throwing his arms around me and hugging me. That melted me. I love affection, and that's why I love working with children because they are openly affectionate if you get them at the right age. He has such childlike qualities even though he's entering the phase of becoming a young man; but he was still in those moments of being a child.