Nicole Kidman recently shared her reflections on filming “Eyes Wide Shut” and speculated whether director Stanley Kubrick drew inspiration from her relationship with ex-husband Tom Cruise.
“I suppose he was mining it,” Kidman—who was married to Cruise for 10 years until their 2001 split—told the Los Angeles Times. “There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions. But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I do remember him saying, ‘Triangles are hard. You have to tread carefully when it’s a triangle.’”
The Oscar-winning actress elaborated on Kubrick’s approach, noting, “Because one person could feel ganged up on. But he was aware of that and knew how to manage us”, reported Page Six.
Kidman, who shares 29-year-old Connor and 31-year-old Isabella with Cruise, also described the unique relationship she and her former partner had with Kubrick. “There’s something about being a woman in that equation, too,” she continued. “And Stanley liked women. He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely together on his character.”
While Kidman has seldom discussed her connection with the “Mission: Impossible” star, she has acknowledged that the film’s themes of power and betrayal resonate with their own relationship dynamics. “We were happily married through that,” Kidman—who also has daughters Sunday, 15, and Faith, 13, with husband Keith Urban—told the New York Times in October 2020.
“We would go go-kart racing after those scenes. We’d rent out a place and go racing at 3 in the morning. I don’t know what else to say. Maybe I don’t have the ability to look back and dissect it. Or I’m not willing to.”
Reflecting on the intense experience of making “Eyes Wide Shut,” Kidman’s comments suggest that while the film’s narrative may have paralleled real aspects of her marriage to Cruise, the couple maintained their own form of equilibrium and enjoyment off-screen. The unique blend of professional collaboration and personal life certainly provided fertile ground for Kubrick’s exploration of complex emotional landscapes.