'Babygirl' star Nicole Kidman shares advice mom gave her when she almost quit acting
Kidman also spoke about her new film, "Babygirl," out Dec. 25.
Nicole Kidman is sharing the sage advice her mom gave her years ago when she thought she was done with acting.
In an interview with "Good Morning America," the Academy Award winner said she thought her career as an actress was done when she had her daughter, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban -- but her mom, Janelle Ann Kidman, told her to give it another thought.
"I was on my farm in Nashville," Kidman recalled. "My mother said, 'No, no, no. Keep your finger in the pie a little bit, don't give it up completely.'"
"I was sort of like, 'I'm done. I've got my baby, this is it,'" she continued. "And she's like, 'I've raised you since you were little, I think you'll need a creative outlet. And you might not want to just throw it all away.'"
Kidman announced that her mother had died in September. The news was announced during the Venice Film Festival after Kidman wasn't present for her best actress selection.
The actress shared a special bond with her mother, who she has always credited in the past when it came to her successful career.
"She's given me the fire to pursue the career I have because I've always wanted to please her," she told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2020.
Now, her mother's advice is something she said she continues to carry with her.
"I keep reaching for it ... but I would much prefer that it was right here," she told "GMA."
In the past 15 years since her daughter was born, Kidman has starred in a plethora of blockbuster films and television shows. In 2024 alone, she starred in six projects, and her latest film, "Babygirl," has earned her a 2025 Golden Globe nomination for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture (drama).
In the new erotic thriller, directed by Halina Reijn, Kidman plays a high-powered CEO who has an affair with an intern, portrayed by Harris Dickinson.
"It's all told through the eyes of a woman," Kidman said about the film. "She suddenly starts feeling things that she knows are not right. The constant shifting of power and the way in which they find their way through, that is what's interesting."
She added that she was drawn to the film's "honesty."
"I think it's deeply human," she said. "At times, that's disturbing, that's sort of uncomfortable. It makes you laugh."
"Hopefully it can turn you on," she added.
When she's not acting, Kidman said she treasures the time she has with family and "getting lost in raising my girls," Sunday Rose, 16, and Faith Margaret, 13, whom she shares with husband Keith Urban.
She is also a mom to two older children, daughter Bella Kidman Cruise, 31, and son Connor Cruise, 29, whom she shares with ex-husband Tom Cruise.
"I have beautiful love from a family that I've worked very hard to have intact and intimate and connected," she said.
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