Why Nicole Kidman's sleeping partner is so familiarNicole Kidman is on her second marriage . . . to Colin Firth.
The Oscar winner was repeating a mirthful line from her co-star. She is, of course, on her second marriage, and very happily so, to country star Keith Urban.
She and Firth play real-life married couple Eric and Patti Lomax in The Railway Man, a film about World War II POW Lomax.
The two actors are also shooting the intense psychological thriller Before I Go To Sleep, with Firth as Nicole's husband and Mark Strong as a doctor treating her character for amnesia.
'Colin said we're on our second marriage now, and it's true, but this is a very different marriage than our first,' Nicole said darkly. 'Before I Go To Sleep is a psychological thriller, my favourite genre. I'm making the kind of film I like to watch.'
She was full of praise for writer-director Rowan Joffe, who has turned S.J. Watson's novel of the same name into a tight, spare, edge-of-your-seat suspense.
'I like directors who are daring and take chances,' she added. 'The films are sometimes experiments. I'm at a time of my life where I don't have to play by the rules and I can work with visionary film-makers who aren't making formulaic films. I want to be tested beyond my comfort zone. I don't want to be safe if it's more interesting to be dangerous.'
She certainly doesn't play by the rules in Stoker, which is currently on release. Nor does she in Lee Daniels's Southern shocker The Paperboy, which opens here on March 15.
In Stoker, she's the mother from hell with a daughter who turns out to be a real bad-ass and an over-attentive brother-in-law, played by Matthew Goode.
The film, directed by Chan-wook Park, was made a while back but was released last week. It's dark, twisted and wicked.
'It's not formulaic,' added Nicole, laughing.
While Nicole is filming Before I Go To Sleep in London, with her two youngest children - daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret - in tow, husband Keith Urban is back in the U.S. working on a new album and shooting American Idol, on which he is a judge.
'Keith comes and goes,' said Nicole. 'He'll fly in for 24 hours just to say hello and give us all a hug, or he might stay a couple of days. He's busy over in Nashville and LA. But once I've finished filming, I'm going to be the wife by his side because it's family time.
'I love it that he's crazy enough to get on a plane and come over here for 24 hours. But that craziness is rooted in a love and a friendship for each other. The friendship is just as important as the love, and it builds over time. I know how lucky I am.'
We were speaking in London just over a week after we'd talked on the Oscar red carpet, where Nicole wore a gown designed for her by L'Wren Scott (left). She described the dress as having 'all the bells and whistles for men' as opposed to wearing a gown that was 'all fashiony' and would appeal more to women.
'You know what you men like in a dress, and that's what I wore. It was for Keith,' she said.
- The Daily Mail