Nicole Kidman is one of the biggest icons in Hollywood. Yet the sexism game is so strong, even she feels it. Here's what the starlet had to say about being a woman and aging in the industry.
Kidman has been non-stop busy with press releases, interviews, and more, thanks to her latest film, Being the Ricardos. The biographical drama stars Nicole as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz and will give audiences a peek into the life of the beloved I Love Lucy stars. And Kidman recently revealed what she and the '50s sitcom legend have in common: they've both faced sexism in acting.
"There's a scene in it where they say, 'You're 39, and that's it. It's kind of over for you,'" Kidman told The Today Show. "I know that feeling. I sort of had that. And it was like, okay. Where television suddenly opened a door for her, it opened a door for me. Around the same age, I was like, 'Gosh, that's kind of ... I know that feeling really deeply.'"
"A lot of it I can relate to, and I go, 'Ah, okay, I've been in that situation. I know that,'" Nicole added. "So I think those things were relatable." And in a more recent interview with Dujour, the actress further detailed the troublesome combo of ageism and sexism in Hollywood.
"There's a consensus in the industry that as a female actor, at about 40, you're done," the 54-year-old explained. "I never sat in a chair and heard someone say, 'You're past your due date,' but I've had times where you're turned down, and the door is shut on you. It's definitely changing and moving, but that's what Being the Ricardos is about."
So what can we expect from the Amazon Prime drama other than seeing Nicole Kidman embody a fellow boss babe and create serious cracks in the glass ceiling? Not a reboot-style film of I Love Lucy. As Lucille's daughter Lucie Arnaz explained, "It's the story of Lucille Ball, my actual mother, not Lucy Ricardo, and her husband, Desi Arnaz, my dad, not Ricky Ricardo. There will be humor in the film, but it is a story of the two of them and how they met and what went right with finding the show, what went wrong, their relationship, their love affair."