Nicole Kidman Made a Rare Comment About Her Marriage to Tom Cruise

By Emily Dixon

Oct 6, 2020

Nicole Kidman spoke about her marriage to Tom Cruise in a new interview with the New York Times Magazine.
Kidman reflected on the experience of filming Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut with her then husband.
"We were happily married through that," she said. "Maybe I don’t have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I’m not willing to."

It's incredibly rare for Nicole Kidman to speak about her marriage to Tom Cruise, which lasted from 1990 to 2001. But in a new interview with the New York Times Magazine, Kidman opened up about a specific period in their relationship, when the couple were shooting the 1999 Stanley Kubrick movie Eyes Wide Shut.

First, Kidman dismissed the "fallacy" that she and Cruise had a difficult time working on the movie, which took far longer to shoot than expected. "We loved working with him. We shot that for two years. We had two kids and were living in a trailer on the lot primarily, making spaghetti because Stanley liked to eat with us sometimes. We were working with the greatest filmmaker and learning about our lives and enjoying our lives on set," she said.

actress nicole kidman and actor tom cruise attend the 19th annual american film institute afi lifetime achievement award salute to kirk douglas on march 7, 1991 at beverly hilton hotel in beverly hills, california photo by ron galella, ltdron galella collection via getty images

Ron Galella, Ltd.Getty Images

"We would say, “When is it going to end?” We went over there thinking it was going to be three months. It turned into a year, a year and a half," Kidman continued. "But you go, As long as I surrender to what this is, I’m going to have an incredible time. Stanley, he wasn’t torturous. He was arduous in that he would shoot a lot. But I’d sit on the floor of his office and talk, and we’d watch animal videos."

Kidman went on to reject the suggestion that the movie, with its recurrent theme of infidelity, put a strain on her relationship with Cruise. "That fits the narrative that people came up with, but I definitely didn’t see it like that. We were happily married through that," she said. "We would go go-kart racing after those scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning. I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I don’t have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I’m not willing to." Interesting!