Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in Australia
You’ve got to pity Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman. The 42-year-old actress has a permanent target on her chest and the latest to take aim is influential Hollywood reporter Nikki Finke.
In her must-read DeadlineHollywoodDaily website, Finke has attacked Kidman for daring to change her American publicist after a professional relationship that lasted 15 years.
Hang on, isn’t that Kidman’s prerogative? After all, things change, we move on. It’s called life. And besides, she is still with her Australian publicist Wendy Day, who has been at her side through thick and thin for more than two decades, proving Kidman is more than loyal.
But her decision to change PR agent has upset Finke, who calls Kidman “box office poison” and says she “has zero charisma on screen; women don’t like her and men think she’s sexless”.
Previously, other critics agreed. Recall how she unfairly copped a caning for her last film, the super-hyped Baz Luhrmann, Australia. Melanie Reid in The Times newspaper in London was scathing about her performance and said the director had made a “big, big mistake” in casting the lanky redhead.
“Kidman is exquisitely accomplished at being awful. She can’t act,” Reid wrote. Meow!
Even though others were less cruel – a Los Angeles Times reporter said she was not a movie star – you get the picture.
Kidman arouses the critics, but is she really box office poison?
Australia might have earned mixed reviews but it still managed to pull in US$211 million at the international box office – which is not too shabby (that figure does not include important DVD sales.) Another critical dud, The Golden Compass also did good business – so she’s got to be doing something right.
Yes, Kidman has been in some shockers – The Invasion, anyone? – but I’m curious why she evokes such a strong, usually negative, reactions from so many people.
I’ve met her and interviewed her a couple of times, the last being on the set of Australia in outback Kununurra. I’m no apologist for her, and I’m not on her payroll, and I’ve been critical of the hype surrounding her and her ex-husband Tom Cruise in the past, but she’s pleasant, she’s sweet, she’s professional, she’s inoffensive and she genuinely wants to do a good job.
It’s hard to muster up the fiercely negative feelings for her that Finke and others have. Folk might not instantly warm to Kidman, but she’s not an effusive Labrador puppy bouncing around looking for instant friends. She’s a woman who admits to being painfully shy, as do most actors. And there is no denying her talent – just look at the brilliant performance in To Die For. Not every film is a winner and that’s true of all actors, even the incomparable Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her) and Johnny Depp (the recently panned Public Enemies).
Still, for someone who is supposedly box office poison, Forbes magazine rated Kidman the eighth top earning actress in Hollywood last year with $15.7 million in income – that’s in Australian dollars.
If that’s box office poison, I’d happily drink from the cup.
