Actress Nicole Kidman talks onstage at War Memorial Gym on the campus of the University of San Francisco during a Silk Speaker Series event on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
University of San Francisco
After decades at the top of Hollywood, Nicole Kidman says she is preparing for a very different role — as a real-life death doula.
Kidman shared the revelation Saturday, April 11, at a sold-out War Memorial Gym on the University of San Francisco campus as part of the private school’s Silk Speaker Series.
The 58-year-old star admits it “sounds a little weird,” but noted the goal stems from her feelings of profound grief since her mother’s death at 84 in May 2024.
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“As my mother was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide,” Kidman told the crowd. “Between my sister and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work, and wanting to take care of her because my father wasn’t in the world anymore, and that’s when I went, ‘I wish there was these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care.’
“So that’s part of my expansion and one of the things I will be learning.”
Nicole Kidman, center, with her mother Janelle Ann Kidman, left, and niece Lucia Hawley at the 2018 AACTA Awards Presented by Foxtel at The Star on Dec. 5, 2018 in Sydney, Australia.
James D. Morgan/Getty Images
That wasn’t all Kidman discussed during a wide-ranging conversation with NBC chief consumer investigative correspondent and author Vicky Nguyen, a USF graduate.
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She also touched on her love for reading, recalling how she devoured Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” when she was a 12-year-old growing up in Australia, an experience that ignited her lifelong affinity for classic literature.
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The Oscar-winner revealed iconic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick as the director she learned from the most, and noted that as an actress who has appeared in many erotic love scenes — most recently “Babygirl” (2025), she approves of Hollywood’s recent requirement to have intimacy coordinators on set.
She also spoke of her charity work with the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Kidman Centre, a youth mental health research and treatment facility in Sydney, her hometown.
She did not, however, address her recent divorce from country singer Keith Urban, or her 1990s marriage to Tom Cruise, who Nguyen referenced with a joke about leading men who were “not that tall,” which Kidman deftly ignored.
Nicole Kidman, left, with co-star Elle Fanning at the premiere of Apple TV’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” at Regal Union Square in New York on April 8, 2026.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Kidman was originally scheduled to appear at USF in October but postponed shortly after news of her divorce, but honored her rescheduled commitment Saturday despite a packed schedule.
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Three days earlier, she was in New York for the premiere of her new Apple TV series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” which debuts Wednesday, April 15. She traveled to San Francisco from Fort Worth, Texas, where she appeared at a charity event Friday, April 9, organized by Taylor Sheridan, the creator of her Paramount+ spy series “Lioness.”
The actress admitted that “stamina,” which she defined as “taking care of my health and taking care of my mental health and being able to show up and give it my all and not ever coasting,” was the hardest part of her job.
Nevertheless, Kidman said it was “thrilling” to be at USF, “because I love education and I think this is a fantastic university.” Indeed, she seemed to be in high spirits — even giving an impromptu sales pitch for the school to the 80 or so prospective students and their parents who were on a campus visit and attended the event.
Actress Nicole Kidman is interviewed onstage by NBC News correspondent Vicky Nguyen at War Memorial Gym on the campus of the University of San Francisco during a Silk Speaker Series event on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
University of San Francisco
She advised students to seek out mentors, even in unlikely places. While she has had many great acting teachers, she noted an English teacher in Australia who introduced her to world literature really stuck with her. As an actress, she is as much influenced by the characters on the pages of books by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, the Brontë sisters and Guy de Maupassant as any onscreen actor.
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“I am Madame Bovary,” she declared, referring to de Maupassant’s tragic heroine. “I would feel those characters and that formed me as an actor.”
It seems preordained, then, that Kidman won her only Academy Award portraying a great author, Virginia Woolf, in Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours” (2002). She even mentioned that her most invigorating experience as an actor was playing a Bovary-esque character in Kubrick’s final film, “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), one of three films she did with Cruise.
“Kubrick was a deeply philosophical man and I got to sit on the floor of his office and read his books and ask him questions and he gave me a really, really wide, wide berth to work within,” Kidman said. “He let me get away with so much. He was one of the greatest teachers I’ve had and he changed my life.”
Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, left, Nicole Kidman and Faith Margaret Kidman-Urban attend the Chanel Womenswear Spring/Summer 2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 6, 2025 in Paris.
Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images
She also reminded students that they get to define their own lives, and part of that is to be resilient in the face of adversity.
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“I literally got off the phone with my 17-year-old who was having a meltdown,” said Kidman, referring to daughter Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. “She’ll kill me for saying that. But I was parenting, mothering and coaching her into, ‘It’s OK. Step by step. Some days are going to be harder than others. You’re going to look back at this week and you’ll have a different perspective on it next week.’
“The fear of what your future is and what do you want to do with your life, all of the things that probably many people in this room are experiencing now, I’m working through with both my daughters.”
Afterward, Kidman took selfies and signed autographs for a solid 10 minutes, unfazed by the crush of students around her. As she left the building to step into a waiting SUV, she even hurriedly scribbled a couple more autographs despite a driving rain.