As Nicole Kidman marks 25 years since Eyes Wide Shut, she’s reflecting on making the movie with her co-star and then-husband Tom Cruise.
The Academy Award winner recalled working with writer/director Stanley Kubrick and “just a lot of talking” as they spent weeks rehearsing one memorable scene of the pair having an intimate talk over a joint in their bedroom.
“When Tom and I first started with Stanley, it was at his home, and we didn’t even go over to the sets at Pinewood [Studios],” she told the Los Angeles Times. “Six, eight weeks passed, and we’re wondering, ‘Are we ever going to start?’ And we just wouldn’t start. We were getting comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to throw out ideas. For that scene, we improvised the beginning of it through the rehearsals.”
Kidman was married to Cruise from 1990 to 2001, during which they filmed Kubrick’s final feature from 1996 to 1998, after an extensive rehearsal period. She presumes the director found inspiration in their marriage while working on the scene.
“I suppose he was mining it,” said Kidman. “There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I do remember him saying, ‘Triangles are hard. You have to tread carefully when it’s a triangle.’ Because one person could feel ganged up on. But he was aware of that and knew how to manage us.”
Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. (Warner Bros.)
The Australian-American actress clarified she never felt ganged up on, “But there’s something about being a woman in that equation, too. And Stanley liked women. He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely together on his character.”
Kidman previously reminisced about the movie in a 2017 interview with Deadline, expressing how grateful she was to have a “slightly zen approach to things” during the lengthy shoot. “Because I was married and I had my kids there. It wasn’t like I was rushing to get finished, to get somewhere else. I was there, with Stanley, and I didn’t care. Whatever,” she said.
Kubrick died of a heart attack at age 70 on March 7, 1999, just days after screening a final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family and the stars of the film.