Why is Nicole Kidman one of the most precious actors in the business right now? Let me count the many, many ways.

First of all, while she undeniably made a very well-deserved name for herself in Hollywood with projects such as Eyes Wide Shut and Moulin Rouge, you could argue that Nicole shines the brightest in chick lit-turned thrillers. Take the huge success of the Big Little Lies in 2017, adapted from Lianne Moriarty’s page-turner of a novel, and Kidman’s subsequent turn in an adaptation of another of the author’s bestsellers Nine Perfect Strangers. There’s a classy kind of suspense that she brings to every role, including hit ‘whodunnit’ TV series The Undoing, in which she starred alongside Hugh Grant.

So I, and the rest of the Kidman stans, could not be more excited for the upcoming Netflix series The Perfect Couple, adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s bestselling chick-lit murder mystery novel and also starring The White Lotus’s Meghann Fahy and Ripley’s Dakota Fanning. 

From the look of the trailer, Kidman’s character, Greer Garrison Winbury, looks to be the glamorous, demure matriarch, with perhaps just a little bit of chaotic energy lying beneath the surface of her seemingly perfect marriage to Tag Winbury (Liev Schreiber). I can’t wait to watch the chaos unfold, with Kidman’s performance undoubtedly at the centre.

She may be having something of a renaissance right now, sure, but also there’s something about seeing a woman over the age of 30, 40, 50 – Kidman is 57, FYI – continue to thrive in an industry as male-dominated as Hollywood. Starring in Netflix romcom A Family Affair earlier this summer with Zac Efron as a love interest and alongside Joey King, she proved that you don’t need a protagonist in her 20s to make a romcom legitimate or enjoyable. Here, her character, Brooke, goes on a ‘coming of age’ journey as she navigates a relationship with a younger man and the constraints she feels due to society’s repressive, sexist attitudes to women over 30, 40, 50 in the workplace.

Not to take anything away from all the amazing younger women smashing it in Hollywood – Sydney Sweeney, Jenna Ortega, Millie Bobby Brown, we love you – but as a woman in her early 30s, there’s something empowering and encouraging about seeing incredible actors like Kidman continue to perform amazing roles whatever their age. Particularly in a world that tells you your value has an expiry date once you hit your 30s.

We also know – and love – that Kidman acknowledges the inequalities in Hollywood and works to champion other women in the entertainment industry as a result. A few years ago, she confirmed in an interview that she is committed to working with a female director every 18 months.

“I think it’s necessary to say that every 18 months I’ll make a movie with a female director,” she said in a 2017 interview. “Because that’s the only way statistics will change when other women start to go, ‘Oh, I’m actually going to choose only a woman now.’ So every 18 months there has to be a female director in the equation.”

Her rallying cry echoes today: recent study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University found that women made up just 16% of directors on the 250 top-grossing films in 2023, down from 18% in 2022.

“We as women have to support female directors,” Nicole said. “Hopefully it will change over time, but everybody keeps saying ‘Oh, it’s so different now…’, and it isn’t.”

She practices what she preaches and has worked with some of the best female directors in the business. Of course, Big Little Lies was produced by Reese Witherspoon’s female-first production company Hello Sunshine, and Nicole has worked with amazing female directors such as Sofia Coppola on The Beguiled, Lulu Wang on Expats and Yellowjackets director Karyn Kusama on Destroyer.

From her killer, suspenseful performances to her smashing of stereotypes and championing of women in a sexist, male-centric industry, we – and Hollywood – most certainly need as much Nicole Kidman in our lives as possible. 

Images: Netflix