Los Angeles (AP) – Morgan Freeman Words spoke, but everyone on stage at the AFI Life Achievement Award presentation agreed: ” nicole kidman, That makes films better.”
The line appeared in Kidman’s video parody of AMC Theatres’ “We Make Movies Better” ad, which opened Saturday night’s celebration at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The crowd of multi-generational A-listers were there for a laugh to honor the 56-year-old Australian’s 40-year career, which has included Oscar-winning roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut.” “hours.”
Meryl StreepKidman’s “The Hours” co-star, who presented Streep with a Life Achievement Award in 2004, also got a big laugh when, in a mock-arrogant voice, she described the hardest part of “constantly being called the greatest.” Did. Actress of my generation.”
This is when you come up against someone who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and you realize they did things you can’t. were, as was the case with Kidman the first day they worked together on the HBO series. “Big little lies,” Streep said.
Streep and her “Big Little Lies” co-star Reese Witherspoon both did Australian-accented Kidman impressions, which surprised audiences.
Kidman was brought to tears as Streep described what inspired her.
Streep said, “People call it bravery when an actress bares everything and leaps into the unknown and she dives deep into the deepest parts of being a human being.” “But I don’t think that’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she likes it very much.”
Kidman cried for the first time of the evening when her husband and fellow Australian singer Keith Urban said he showed her “what love really looks like” when his substance abuse problems emerged shortly after their marriage in 2006.
“We’ve been married four months, I’ve been in rehab for three months,” Urban said, looking at Kidman. Where she was sitting on a stage with her two daughters and other family. “Nick pushed aside every negative voice, I’m sure including some of his own, and he chose love. And here we are, 18 years later.”
Kidman said that night was the first time she allowed her teenage daughters to join her on the 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 an Oscar in 2003 for playing Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
He thanked by name every director he has worked with, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.
“Making films is a privilege. And it’s an honor to be making movies and television with these storytellers who have given me the freedom to be free and play all these unconventional women,” Kidman said, wearing a floor-length, sparkly-gold gown. “Thank you for making me better at my art and giving me a place in this world, even if it is temporary.”
In November of 2022, it was announced that Kidman would receive the award, which was first given in 1973, previous winners of which include Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Tom Hanks, Including Robert De Niro. Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony was originally scheduled for June 2023, but was delayed hollywood hit, It will air on June 17 on TNT.
Kidman was also nominated for Academy Awards for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Lion,” and “Being the Ricardos,” whose director Aaron Sorkin also praised her at the ceremony.
Others honoring him included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who took the stage disguised in one of the terrifying macabre masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Kidman began her career as a teenager in Australia, appearing in films such as “Bush Christmas” and “BMX Bandits”. Naomi Watts, a friend from those days, described meeting Kidman when both of them had to sit in a waiting room in bathing suits for two hours during an audition. Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett all posted video tributes to the first person 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” brought her, among others, to Cruise’s attention when only her name was spoken Saturday night.
She had her breakthrough Hollywood role together in 1990’s “Days of Thunder” – they would marry that same year – and also starred together in 1992’s “Far and Away” and 1999’s Kubrick’s final film, “Eyes Wide Shut.”
She divorced Cruise in 2001, but his stardom continued to grow. Some of his biggest roles and his Oscar were still to come.
The role most cited as a favorite during Saturday night’s awards show was his musical performance in Luhrmann’s 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”
Freeman, a 2011 AFI honoree, serenaded Kidman in her personal presentation after the video spoof by singing the modified Elton John lines she sang in the film: “Life’s so wonderful now that you’re in the world.”
