{"id":538669,"date":"2026-04-19T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538669\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T01:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T01:33:09","slug":"nicole-kidman-on-learning-mothers-death-before-babygirl-venice-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538669\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicole Kidman on Learning Mother’s Death Before ‘Babygirl’ Venice Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNicole Kidman<\/a> was interviewed by Hoda Kotb during a History Talks<\/a>\u00a0panel in Philadelphia and was asked to recall the moment she learned about her mother\u2019s death. Kidman revealed she learned the news just moments before she was set to accept best actress at the 2024 Venice Film Festival<\/a> for \u201cBabygirl<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was about to go out on stage, and I found out that my mother had passed,\u201d Kidman recounted on Saturday afternoon. \u201cI went right back to my room in Venice, was getting into bed, and I was completely devastated.\u201d Struggling to process her situation, Kidman recalled thinking, \u201c\u2018I\u2019m not sure how I\u2019m going to move forward or function now.\u2019 She was so much a part of my existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKidman went on to describe a \u201charrowing\u201d attempt to leave Venice in the middle of the night to be with her family, navigating the canals in the dark before ultimately turning back.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember getting into a boat in the canal, literally at night, trying to find my way to the airport, and then turning around going, \u2018I can\u2019t even do this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThen I went back to bed. And I was alone. My husband wasn\u2019t there, my children weren\u2019t there. I was there to win an award, which should\u2019ve been a beautiful thing. That there is the contrast of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cBabygirl\u201d star concluded that the defining experience reinforced her resilience and belief that she \u201ccould survive pretty much anything,\u201d a strength she attributes to her mother.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe told me: don\u2019t ever let anyone break your spirit,\u201d Kidman said. \u201cShe came from an era where she wasn\u2019t given the career advice she would\u2019ve loved. She raised us, supported my father, helped him get his PhD. She basically gave to her family and didn\u2019t have the career that she would\u2019ve loved to have had. She was exceptionally smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKidman\u2019s mother, Janelle Anne Kidman, was a nursing instructor and was a member of the Women\u2019s Electoral Lobby, an Australian feminist group. Later in the conversation, Kidman recounted how her mother was the one who urged her not to<\/a> leave Hollywood when roles started to dry up in her 40s.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe was like, \u2018I think you need to still keep your toe in the water. I wouldn\u2019t completely give up.\u2019 You\u2019ve been doing this since you were little,\u201d Kidman said. \u201cAnd thank God she said that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat followed was what Kidman called \u201ca much more interesting road\u201d in her career, one where she took on a larger role behind the camera and championed projects that resonated with her. One of her first big swings was adapting the 2006 play \u201cRabbit Hole,\u201d which follows a couple coping with the loss of a child.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought, \u2018What a wonderful thing to do,\u2019 having just given birth to a child,\u201d she smiled. \u201cThis is how strange I am \u2014 to go and make a film about the thing I\u2019m most terrified of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA few years later, Kidman scored a third Oscar nomination for her role in the film, marking a turning point in her career.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo one wanted to give us any money,\u201d Kidman recalled. \u201cIt was a $3.5 million film. We had to fight for every cent, but we got it made. It was scrappy, but it was passionate. That was the beginning of my producing career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKidman recently appeared at CinemaCon in Las Vegas to promote \u201cPractical Magic 2,\u201d the long-awaited sequel to the 1998 romantic fantasy she starred in with Sandra Bullock, set for release this September. She\u2019s also starring in two new streaming series this year: the Apple TV+ original \u201cMargo\u2019s Got Money Problems\u201d and the Prime Video series \u201cScarpetta.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHistory Talks, the brainchild of A+E Networks chief Paul Buccieri, is a live speaker series exploring newsworthy topics and historical events, bringing together trailblazers, global leaders, witnesses, authors and filmmakers for in-depth conversations.<\/p>\n

\n\tKidman joined a range of entertainment figures at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia on Saturday, including NFL icons Tom Brady and Jason Kelce, country singer Garth Brooks and comedians Tina Fey and Colin Jost. Former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also attended with their First Ladies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHistoryTalks brings together leaders and icons across\u00a0industries\u00a0to reflect on our shared history. At A+E Global Media and HISTORY Channel we have always been proud to create moments to celebrate our collective past\u00a0and contextualize the present,\u201d said Buccieri. \u201cWe were honored to join with Comcast\u00a0NBC Universal in their hometown of Philadelphia, as we commemorate our nation\u2019s 250th\u00a0anniversary, bringing together teachers, veterans and history enthusiasts to commemorate this milestone in the birthplace of our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicole Kidman was interviewed by Hoda Kotb during a History Talks\u00a0panel in Philadelphia and was asked to recall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[185889,6491,96,185890,805,56,54,55,10306],"class_list":{"0":"post-538669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-babygirl","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-history-talks","12":"tag-nicole-kidman","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-venice-film-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}