Nicole Kidman has taken on many roles during her illustrious career including many acclaimed films which have netted her an Oscar, several Golden Globe awards, and many other awards over the years. So why would an actress of her caliber ever agree to play a love interest in a Batman movie? Well, it turns out that the answer is simple: because it gave her the chance to kiss Batman!
“Everyone's like, ’Why are you doing that?’ I'm like, ‘Because I get to kiss Batman!’,” Kidman told L'Officiel in a new interview when reflecting upon her role in Batman Forever.
Honestly, can you get more real than that?!
While kissing Batman might have been a major draw, it ultimately came down to doing something fresh and different from what she had done before, not for the paycheck that typically comes with bigger box office tiles.
“The thing people don't understand is, it's not about the check. A lot of the mainstream big blockbusters that I do are hopefully different,” she added. In fact, that desire to try new things is actually what actually led to her return to the superhero genre via Aquaman, which she first thought was a horror film and she met to discuss the project as she had “really wanted to work with him in horror.”
Kidman’s return to DC via Aquaman as the title character’s mother, Atlanna, came over 20 years after she appeared as Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever. Despite an A-List cast that included Val Kilmer as Batman, Chris O’Donnell as Robin, Jim Carrey as Riddler, Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, Drew Barrymore as Sugar, and Debi Mazar as Spice, Batman Forever didn’t quite live up to Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns. Fortunately, Aquaman was a different story as the film exceeded expectations to become the highest-grossing DCEU film!
Given 20 years passed between Kidman’s roles in DC films, it’ll be interesting to see if she opts to appear in another superhero film in the future but it’s clear she’s not opposed to the genre. Who knows, maybe one day Marvel can steal her away for a role in an MCU project? Or maybe Kidman will go three-for-three with DC roles.
All we know is that so long as the project is interesting and allows her to do something different, there is a chance Kidman will be open to the possibility of starring!