It was sensational: One of Hollywood’s most famous couples at the time, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, played a married couple with wild sexual fantasies in “Eyes Wide Shut.” Cult director Stanley Kubrick used their marriage for the film, as Kidman now reveals in an interview.
When Nicole Kidman, 57, and Tom Cruise, 62, agreed to film the erotic mystery thriller “Eyes Wide Shut” with Stanley Kubrick, they were considered one of Hollywood’s most famous and desired couples. By the time filming began in November 1996, they had been married for five years. The late cult director wanted a real-life couple for the lead roles to lower the barrier for some intimate scenes. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the controversial film, Kidman admitted in an interview with the “Los Angeles Times” that Kubrick “used” their marriage for the film—and she shared more rare words about her ex-husband Cruise.
Nicole Kidman Experienced Challenging Filming with Tom Cruise
Instead of six months, the filming of “Eyes Wide Shut” stretched to nearly two years. The film, which was promoted in the late 90s as a “story of sexual jealousy and obsession,” received mixed reviews from critics. Some hailed it as “brilliantly provocative” (“New York Times”), while others called it “devoid of ideas and fire” (“Washington Post”). The fact is, the intense scenes and preparations tested Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s marriage.
Director “Asked a Lot of Questions”
Even before they started filming at the Pinewood Studios, Kidman and Cruise exchanged ideas about their roles with Kubrick at the director’s home. She played Alice, the wife of New York doctor Bill Harford, portrayed by Cruise.
“Six, eight weeks passed, and we wondered, ‘Will we ever start?'” the Australian Hollywood star recalls in an interview with the “Los Angeles Times.” During this time and beyond, the couple also talked a lot about their marriage with Kubrick. “He asked a lot of questions,” Nicole Kidman says in the interview.
Actress Is Sure: Stanley Kubrick “Used” Their Marriage for the Film
The Oscar-winning director used their “marriage as a basis for the relationship between Bill and Alice.” Nicole Kidman confirmed the question of “Los Angeles Times” editor Glenn Whipp and explained, “I suppose he used it. There were ideas he was interested in. […] But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I remember him saying, ‘Triangles are tricky. You have to be careful when it’s a triangle.’ Because one person could feel pressured. But he was aware of that and knew how to handle us.”
Kidman Never Felt Pressured
Kidman emphasizes that she never felt pressured. “That also has to do with being a woman. And Stanley liked women,” the Oscar winner told the “Los Angeles Times.”
When it came time to shoot, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise had to be very close for several months: “We had a house that was ten minutes away, but we lived in this trailer. Tom and I shared it because Stanley always said, ‘You don’t both get a trailer. We can’t afford that.'”
“Eyes Wide Shut” was released in theaters in 1999. Stanley Kubrick died just a few days after completing the film’s editing in March 1999. A little over two years later, in August 2001, after eleven years of marriage, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorced.
