Australia’s own Nicole Kidman has been captivating audiences since 1983 when she tore up the screen as Judy in the iconic Aussie film BMX Bandits. Since then she has achieved huge international success and cemented herself as one of the country’s best acting exports — inhabiting roles that run the gamut of arthouse to family-friendly, raw and intense to irreverently comedic.
Kidman may have been born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but she is undoubtedly one of Australia’s proudest exports.
Over the course of her storied career, Kidman has won an Oscar, two Emmy’s and five Golden Globes, just to name a few.
In honour of her most recent Globes nomination — her fifteenth — for The Undoing in which she stars with Hugh Grant, we take a look back at her other roles that earned her a prestigious statuette.
To Die For, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, 1996
Kidman won her first Golden Globe in 1996 for Gus Van Sant’s dark comedy about a local weather reader who harbours a deep desire to find universal fame.
Kidman absolutely shines as Suzanne Stone, who decides that her husband is just standing in her way and therefore must be gotten rid of — permanently.
Moulin Rouge!, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, 2002
Kidman was nominated for two best actress Golden Globes in 2002 — for supernatural drama The Others and for Baz Lurhmann’s epic musical Moulin Rouge!, winning for the latter.
As Satine, the burlesque performer with a tragic secret who captures the heart of Ewan McGregor’s Christian, Kidman showed audiences around the world that she could sing, dance, act and perform aerial acrobatics in a performance worthy of her second Golden Globe.
The Hours, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, 2003
Kidman’s third Globes win was for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours — a role for which she also won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
For the film, Kidman donned a prosthetic nose, at a time when it seemed that leading ladies had to drastically alter their glamorous appearances to win coveted awards (think Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball and Charlize Theron in Monster.)
However, Kidman’s performance was so much more than just some prosthetics, with the actress giving a nuanced and enthralling performance that solidified her status as one of Hollywood’s elite.
Big Little Lies, Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture – Television, 2018
Kidman’s turn as Celeste Wright in the TV adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel — for which Kidman, as one of the show’s producers also won the Globe for Miniseries or Motion Picture, Television — is nothing short of exquisite.
The actress managed to capture the horrifying duality of a woman who, on the surface has everything one could dream of, yet is the victim of ongoing domestic abuse at the hands of her “perfect” husband.
As Celeste, Kidman flawlessly offers viewers the insight that the complexities of abusive relationships can be equal parts confounding, deeply relatable and irrevocably scarring.
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