World Courant
LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman mentioned the phrases, however nearly everybody who took the stage on the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony agreed: “Nicole Kidman. She makes motion pictures higher.”
The road got here in a video parody of Kidman’s AMC Theaters “we make motion pictures higher” advert that opened Saturday night time’s ceremony on the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. There have been big laughs from the group of multigenerational A-listers celebrating the 56-year-old Australian’s 40-year profession, which incorporates roles in ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Eyes Vast Shut’ and an Oscar-winning position in ” Doorways.”
Meryl Streep, the co-star of Kidman’s “The Hours” who introduced Streep with the Life Achievement Award she herself received in 2004, received nearly as huge amusing when she described in a faux-boastful voice the toughest a part of “calling incessantly grow to be’. the best actress of my technology.”
It is whenever you meet another person who’s “actually, actually, actually, actually, actually, actually nice” and also you understand that they’ve executed belongings you could not do, as occurred to Kidman on the primary day they labored collectively. HBO collection labored. “Huge little lies,” Streep mentioned.
Streep and their “Huge Little Lies” co-star Reese Witherspoon each did spot-on, Australian-accented impressions of Kidman that left audiences confused.
Streep additionally drew tears from Kidman as he described what she believes motivated her.
“Folks name it braveness when an actress bares all of it and leaps into the unknown and delves deep into the darkish sides of what it’s to be human,” Streep mentioned. ‘However I do not suppose it is braveness. I believe it is love. I believe she simply loves it.”
Kidman broke down in tears for the primary time that night when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith City, mentioned she confirmed him “what love in motion actually appears to be like like” when his substance abuse issues took maintain nearly instantly after their 2006 wedding ceremony. got here gentle.
“4 months after our wedding ceremony, I am in rehab for 3 months,” City mentioned, Kidman, the place she sat on a stage with their two daughters and different household. “Nic has endured each detrimental voice, even her personal, I am certain, and he or she has chosen love. And right here we’re 18 years later.”
Kidman mentioned it was the primary time she had their teenage daughters on the crimson carpet. She additionally has two kids along with her first husband, Tom Cruise.
She accepted the AFI award on the identical venue the place she obtained her Oscar in 2003 for taking part in Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”
She thanked by title each director she has labored with, together with Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.
“It is a privilege to make movies. And wonderful to have made movies and tv with these storytellers who gave me the chance to let unfastened and be free and play all these unconventional ladies,” mentioned Kidman, wearing a shimmering floor-length gold costume. “Thanks for making me higher at my craft and for giving me a spot, nonetheless momentary, on this world.”
In November 2022, it was introduced that Kidman would obtain the award, which was first introduced in 1973, and former winners have included Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony was initially scheduled for June 2023, however was postponed as a result of Hollywood strikes. The published will air on TNT on June 17.
Kidman was additionally nominated for Academy Awards for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Gap,” “Lion” and “Being the Ricardos,” whose director, Aaron Sorkin, additionally sang her praises on the ceremony.
Others who honored her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who got here on stage in disguise in one of many terrifying orgy masks from “Eyes Vast Shut.”
Kidman began her profession as a young person in Australia in movies comparable to ‘Bush Christmas’ and ‘BMX Bandits’. Naomi Watts, a buddy on the time, described assembly Kidman once they each needed to sit in a ready room in swimwear for 2 hours. an audition. Aussies Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett all gave video tributes to the primary from their nation to win the award.
Kidman mentioned in a video performed through the ceremony that her efficiency within the 1989 thriller “Useless Calm” introduced her to the eye of Cruise, amongst others, the one time his title was spoken Saturday night time.
She had her Hollywood breakthrough in 1990 in ‘Days of Thunder’ (they might marry the identical yr) and likewise co-starred in 1992’s ‘Far and Away’ and in 1999 in Kubrick’s final movie, ‘Eyes Vast Shut’.
She divorced Cruise in 2001, however her stardom solely grew. A few of her greatest roles, and her Oscar, had been but to return.
Essentially the most-voted favourite position at Saturday night time’s awards ceremony was her musical flip in Luhrmann’s 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”
Freeman, the 2011 AFI honoree, in his private presentation following the video parody, serenaded Kidman with the tailored Elton John traces she sings within the movie: “How fantastic life is, now you are on the planet .”
