The Oscar-winning American-Australian actor answers questions from Observer readers and famous fans including Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts
Nicole Kidman has finally found a way to impress that trickiest of demographics: her 16-year-old daughter. “The other night, I was interviewed by Amelia, the chicken nuggets,” she says, with a smirk. The 57-year-old Australian megastar is talking about Amelia Dimoldenberg, the comedian and host of the video series Chicken Shop Date, who buttonholed her for a quick chat on the red carpet at an awards bash in London. “That’s all my daughter cared about, and I loved that,” Kidman goes on. “That to her was like, ‘Oh my God!’ She wasn’t interested in anybody else. And then I saw the things that she did, Amelia, and she’s really funny. I loved her with Billie Eilish, and Andrew Garfield and her was so funny. And now I have to go for a date with her. I’m asking for the date.”
Kidman may have a reputation on screen for playing steely and impenetrable, but away from it, she has a more playful, even sillier, side. That charm is front and centre when we meet in a London hotel for the Observer’s You Ask the Questions feature, made up of submissions from friends, collaborators and readers. Kidman wears a boxy grey suit from Tod’s with a prim, white shirt buttoned to the neck and glinting black loafers. Her auburn hair is parted in the middle and falls to just below her shoulders. It’s a serious look, but Kidman laughs a lot: it’s almost the punctuation of her paragraphs. And she clearly seems to enjoy herself today, extending our allotted time and saying, as I’m finally being bustled to the exit by the PR: “I wish we could have had more readers’ questions. Throw one more at me. Come on, one more!”
