‘It’s not about money, awards or being a star’: Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman on what motivates her to say yes to scripts

HOW can you take seriously someone whose first acting role was to play a sheep?

Well, maybe if you know that we are talking about Nicole Kidman and that not only does she have more major films waiting to be released during next year, but looks stunningly fabulous at age 50, starting out as a sheep seems not bad.

“I was five and it was Christmas time and I learned my lines very easily — I had to bleat!” Nicole revealed.

Far from being sheepish about it, she’s quite pleased with the fact it gave her the taste for acting that has made her one of our favourite A-list movie stars.

Nicole has become an excellent actress — she won a Best Actress Oscar for The Hours in 2002 — but she could be equally as famous for her sense of fun.

When she was awarded her star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, she laughed with delight and said: “That’s great! I’ve never been so excited about having people walk all over me!”

She’s proud to be Australian yet she was actually born in Hawaii because her parents were on a visit there at the time.

“They were in Honolulu, so I was born there, but since they were both Australian and we actually lived in Australia, I am definitely Australian,” she said.

“When I was a baby, we moved to Washington because of my father’s work — he was a biochemist working on breast cancer.

“A few years later, I was back in Australia, in Sydney, to be exact, and that’s where I was brought up.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I liked animals and I still love going to the zoo.

“I kept out of the sun because my skin was so fair that it was not good for me. My friends played out in the sun, but I stayed in for a lot of the time.

“It was exciting when I discovered ballet and I thought that was what I wanted to do.

“It was so beautiful. I loved it, but then I got into mime, then drama, so I found myself getting more on the path of acting.

“I worked hard at it and used to be involved with the Philip Street Theater, where I learned so much and could try things.

“I was still at school, but I didn’t enjoy it and surprised people by opting out of high school to become a full-time actress.

“A lot of people thought I was crazy, but that’s OK. We are all a bit crazy, but actors are generally crazier than most.

“The big worry was whether I could get any real work, but I was lucky enough to get a part in a movie called Bush Christmas.

“That was popular. I was 16 at the time, and looking back, I know I was fortunate to get roles I could handle.

“Sometimes, young actresses are given heavy emotional parts to play but, at that age, you don’t have any real experience of life, so you have nothing to work from.

“That is why I think 30 is probably the perfect age for an actress.

“You still have your looks, but you’ve gathered up some of life’s baggage, so you know how it feels to go through this or that.

“Anyway, from Bush Christmas, things just took off. I must have done something right as a lot of other parts were offered, and here I am today, delighted to still be busy.”

She certainly is busy and always seems to have three or four movies about to be released.

She has been working on both Boy Erased and Aquaman recently, and new scripts arrive almost daily.

“I won’t accept just anything,” Nicole insisted.

“I am an actress, that is my profession, but I don’t just take anything because it is my job and I am going to get a salary.

“I have to try to associate with the part. If I can, that’s the first step and then we look more deeply into who is making the movie, where, when and how.

“I like a challenge, and parts to be different if at all possible.

“I’m most associated with movies, but I do love theatre acting as well.

“I love the fact you have to step on stage and get on with it in front of a live audience with no stopping to make an adjustment.

“You get that one shot at getting it right, nothing ends up being cut and you can hear how the audience is reacting.

“If they laugh in all the right places and ooh and aah where you hope they will, it spurs you on.

“You don’t get that when you are making a movie.”

Earlier in her career, Nicole worked with Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, which led to romance and, later, a famous marriage.

“We had our good times and our bad, like anyone else, but we parted, it happens,” she said. “I’m happy with life now.”

And why not? Nicole is married to Country music star Keith Urban, and spends much of her life in Tennessee, which she loves.

She has two children, Isabella and Connor, from her first marriage and Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret from the one to Keith.

“They are my first love,” she said. “I love being a wife and mother, that is the real life.

“Yes, I love being an actress, but my family is No 1. I could give up being an actress, but I could never give up my family.”

Give up being an actress? Surely not! What else would Nicole do? After all, she’s, well, Nicole Kidman.

“I know I was smitten with ballet and then acting, but by the time I’d reached my teens, I’d developed a love of writing, too,” she said.

“My father encouraged me to think about being a journalist.

“A few people thought that it was the career for me, and some even said I would never make it as an actress because I was too tall and wouldn’t be able to play romantic scenes with guys shorter than me.

“That hasn’t been the case, of course.

“I started keeping a diary when I was quite young, and I still have one. Perhaps they’ll be published one day — but then, I hope not.”

Meanwhile, Nicole continues at the top of her profession and with many more years ahead.

“I hope so, I am still in love with acting,” she said.

“I can see myself still making two or three movies a year when I am 70, if they still want me.

“I’m still excited every time I walk onto a new set at the start of a movie and as long as that continues, I will never give up.

“Acting is my hobby, but it’s also something that lives inside you and is constantly desperate to get out.

“When it does, it makes you so happy and excited. I wake up every day knowing how lucky I am!”