Nicole Kidman recently offered unexpected insights into her first marriage while discussing her collaboration with ex-husband Tom Cruise and iconic director Stanley Kubrick on the 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, in celebration of its 25th anniversary.
In a fresh interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Oscar winner, 57, reminisced about the filming experience and pondered if Kubrick (who passed away the year the film was released) might have been influenced by her and Cruise’s relationship during the making of the movie.
As fans know, the Big Little Lies actress and Top Gun: Maverick star were married from 1990 to 2001 and share two children together: Isabella, 31, and Connor, 29.
 
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Nicole Kidman Makes Rare Comments About Working With Tom Cruise And Stanley Kubrick For Eyes Wide Shut's 25th Anniversary
"I suppose he was mining it," Kidman told the outlet regarding Kubrick. "There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I do remember him saying, ‘Triangles are hard. You have to tread carefully when it’s a triangle.’"
The Moulin Rouge! alum (who is now married to country singer Keith Urban) went on: "Because one person could feel ganged up on. But he was aware of that and knew how to manage us."
Kidman (who is also mom to daughters Sunday, 15, and Faith, 13, whom she shares with Urban, 56) observed that she and her former husband, Cruise, each cultivated their own unique relationship with director Kubrick.
"There’s something about being a woman in that equation, too," Kidman explained. "And Stanley liked women. He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely together on his character."
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Although the Family Affair star seldom delves into her former relationship with the Vanilla Sky actor, she has commented on the "narrative" of their joint film, Eyes Wide Shut. The film, delving into themes of authority and betrayal, is frequently regarded as a mirror of their real-life relationship.
In 2020, Kidman told the New York Times regarding Cruise and her time filming the Kubrick movie in 1999: "We were happily married through that. We would go go-kart racing after those scenes."
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"We'd rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning. I don't know what else to say. Maybe I don't have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I'm not willing to."
The Expats actress also insisted that her experience with Kubrick was positive, regardless of any conflicting reports. "This is where the fallacy is: We loved working with him," Kidman went on.
"We shot that for two years. We had two kids and were living in a trailer on the lot primarily, making spaghetti because Stanley liked to eat with us sometimes. We were working with the greatest filmmaker and learning about our lives and enjoying our lives on set."