Nicole Kidman on Delving into the ‘Rabbit Hole’

When ‘Rabbit Hole’ premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, we fell hard for the quietly powerful film about a pair of spouses (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) trying to rebuild some sense of normalcy only a few months removed from the death of their young son. Lionsgate snatched it up a few weeks later, and the distributor has done an impressive job of building up some steam for not only Nicole Kidman’s superb lead performance, but also for the very fine film as a whole.

As ‘Rabbit Hole’ prepares to arrive in theaters on December 17th, we were invited to share a brief chat with actor / producer Nicole Kidman on the dangers of making “sad” films, the delicacy of good storytelling, and the importance of fear in an actor’s craft.

As you may know, I’ve been a huge fan of the film since the moment I saw it at TIFF, and that opinion comes from a single guy, never had children…

Nicole Kidman: Thank you, thank you! We are trying so desperately to get people to go see it. It seems like such a terrifying experience to a lot of people, so you can imagine just how grateful we are.

I imagine it’s hard for a casual viewer to get past the basic premise.

Nicole: Absolutely. We keep trying to say that the experience of the film is not putting you through the wringer. That’s not the point of it.

Of course the subject material is very “sad,” but the film as a whole is also rather uplifting.

Nicole: Yeah, and funny too, which sounds very strange to say about this material.