Let’s Listen to Nicole Kidman’s Director Talk About Her Botox Face

Nicole Kidman’s latest movie, Rabbit Hole, recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.  If you don’t know about Rabbit Hole, let me give you a little bit of background.  It’s based on a play, and it’s about a woman (played by Nicole) whose son gets hit by a car and dies.  The character in the play, and I assume the movie, is understandably not doing so well in the aftermath of that.  There are scenes that feature the character screaming at her mother about how God is a sadistic prick, arguing with her husband about which one of them is to blame for the death of her son, and a pretty powerful scene where the teenage boy who hit her son visits and she ends up having a total cathartic sobfest.  So yeah, there’s a pretty wide range of emotions, regardless of how close the movie is to the play.  And you know what makes facial expressions of emotion hard?  Botox.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt from an interview with Rabbit Hole director, John Cameron Mitchell:

Not to be mean, gossipy or catty, I swear, but this needs to addressed: Nicole Kidman’s face. As a filmgoer and a Kidman fan, I can’t help but think of how the changing appearance of her face over time affects her characters, her characterizations, and how they’re received. Was that a consideration for you as a director, especially shooting close-ups and attempting to capture expressiveness?
I didn’t really follow the EW timeline of her face. When I met her, that’s who I knew. I sort of remembered some other films. She hasn’t been under the knife. I don’t know anything about Botox, but she certainly wasn’t doing it in our film. In our film, she played the most real person — looking-wise, acting-wise — that she has since… Dogville’s an amazing performance, though I wouldn’t exactly call that quotidian. Sometimes she wears wigs because her hair gets tangly, but we said no — no wigs. It would save us time, and we’d believe this woman more. And those can sometimes add a layer, no matter how good the wig is.

This was as naked as she can be, especially considering how the character is put together. But shooting on the Red [movie camera] with soft lenses — we were worried about a hard video look — was a good match. We didn’t glam her up; she’s a beautiful woman anyway. But for the first time, she feels like she’s her age. She wasn’t afraid of the shots where she just doesn’t look good — weeping, this and that. She went all the way. Hopefully this film will kind of reduce all of that, because when you’re focusing on something like that, it gets in the way. I mean look: Mickey Rourke did way, much more, and there was a big question about Mickey Rourke’s face. So he goes off and does The Wrestler, and now that’s his face. Whatever. That’s much more extreme. He got past that by playing through it. And yeah — it’s kind of an unfortunate moment in his life that made him feel like he had to do that.

But with her, I think it’s higher standards for women; we wouldn’t be asking these questions of guys. Unless it’s Sylvester Stallone. I feel like there should have been more conversation on that face. But you’re right: They bring it on themselves if they’re going to go there.

This isn’t about gossip, either. I’m talking about in a strictly aesthetic sense. It makes a difference.
I know. People would ask me, “How’s her face?” It’s just so weird. That was just an augur of the types of films she had made, which weren’t of great quality. So what you do focus are things like that: “What is she doing?” And that just says something about her choices in the last few years, maybe.

God bless this interviewer.  “Yeah yeah, directing process and adaptation and whatever, but hey, I have got to ask, what’s up with Nicole Kidman’s face?”  Excellent.  I also love how earnestly the topic is addressed and how delicately the director answers it.  You know what I would really love though?  If some director who’s worked with Nicole Kidman would just let her know that she can’t really show emotion that well anymore.  That would be the best.