Morgan Freeman spoke the phrases, however just about everybody who took the stage on the presentation of the AFI Life Achievement Award agreed: Nicole Kidman. She makes movies higher.
The line got here in a video parody of Kidman’s AMC Theatres “We Make Movies Better” advert that opened the Saturday evening ceremony on the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. It bought big laughs from the group of multigenerational A-listers there to honor the 40-year profession of the 56-year-old Australian that has included roles in Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut, and an Oscar-winning flip in The Hours.
Meryl Streep, Kidman’s The Hours co-star who introduced to Streep the Life Achievement Award that she received herself in 2004, bought laughs almost as large when, in a mock-boastful voice, described the toughest a part of being “incessantly called the greatest actress of my generation.”
It’s once you come up in opposition to another person who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and also you notice they did belongings you couldn’t do, as occurred with Kidman the primary day they labored collectively on the HBO collection Big Little Lies, Streep mentioned.
Streep and their Big Little Lies co-star Reese Witherspoon each did spot-on, Australian-accented impressions of Kidman that had the viewers in stitches.
Streep additionally drew tears from Kidman when describing what she believed motivated her. “People call it bravery when an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown and she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being,” Streep mentioned. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she just loves it.”
Honoree Nicole Kidman, proper, accepts the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award from presenter Meryl Streep, Saturday, April 27, 2024, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
| Photo Credit:
Chris Pizzello
Kidman teared up for the primary time within the night when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith Urban, mentioned she confirmed him “what love in action really looks like” when his substance abuse issues emerged nearly instantly after they wed in 2006. “Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban mentioned, Kidman the place she sat on a dais with their two daughters and different household. “Nic pushed through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.”
Keith Urban speaks from the stage through the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to his spouse Nicole Kidman, Saturday, April 27, 2024, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
| Photo Credit:
Chris Pizzello
Kidman mentioned the evening was the primary time she allowed their teenage daughters to affix her on a crimson carpet. She additionally has two kids together with her first husband, Tom Cruise.
She accepted the AFI award in the identical venue the place she accepted her Oscar in 2003 for taking part in Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
She thanked by identify 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 films. And glorious to have made films and television with these storytellers who allowed me to run wild and be free and play all of these unconventional women,” Kidman mentioned, sporting a floor-length, glittering-gold robe. “Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world.”
Nicole Kidman reacts whereas her husband Keith Urban speaks on stage on the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute Gala in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
MARIO ANZUONI
It was introduced again in November of 2022 that Kidman would obtain the award, first handed out in 1973, whose earlier winners embody Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony initially was scheduled for June of 2023 however delayed due to Hollywood’s strikes. It will air on TNT on June 17.
Kidman additionally was nominated for Academy Awards for Moulin Rouge, Rabbit Hole, Lion, and Being the Ricardos, whose director, Aaron Sorkin, additionally sang her praises on the ceremony.
Others honoring her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana, and Mike Myers, who got here on stage in disguise in one of many eerie orgy masks from Eyes Wide Shut.
Kidman started her profession as a teen in Australia in movies together with Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Naomi Watts, a good friend from these days, described assembly Kidman when each needed to sit in a ready room in bathing fits for 2 hours at an audition. Aussies Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman, and Cate Blanchett all gave video tributes to the primary from their nation to win the award.
Honoree Nicole Kidman addresses the viewers through the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award tribute to her, Saturday, April 27, 2024, on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
| Photo Credit:
Chris Pizzello
Kidman mentioned in a video performed on the ceremony that her look within the 1989 thriller Dead Calm introduced her to the eye of, amongst others, Cruise, the one time his identify was spoken Saturday evening.
She had her breakthrough Hollywood position alongside him in 1990s Days of Thunder — they might marry the identical yr — and in addition starred collectively in 1992s Far and Away and in 1999 in Kubrick’s closing movie, Eyes Wide Shut.
She divorced Cruise in 2001, however her stardom solely grew in his wake. Some of her largest roles, and her Oscar, had been nonetheless to return.
The position most frequently cited as a favourite through the awards present Saturday evening was her musical flip in Luhrmann’s 2001 Moulin Rouge.
Freeman, the 2011 AFI honoree, in his in-person presentation that adopted the video spoof, serenaded Kidman with the modified Elton John traces she sings within the movie: “How wonderful life is, now you’re in the world.”