MOVIE NEWS – As Nicole Kidman celebrates the 25th anniversary of Eyes Wide Shut, she looks back on making the film with her then-husband and co-star Tom Cruise.

The Academy Award-winning actress recalled the extensive conversations with writer/director Stanley Kubrick as they spent weeks rehearsing a memorable scene where the couple has an intimate talk while sharing a joint in their bedroom.

“When Tom and I first started working with Stanley, it was at his home, and we didn’t even go to the sets at Pinewood Studios,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “Six, eight weeks passed, and we were wondering, ‘Are we ever going to start?’ And we just wouldn’t start. We were getting comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to throw out ideas. For that scene, we improvised the beginning during rehearsals.”

Kidman was married to Cruise from 1990 to 2001, and during this time, they filmed Kubrick’s final feature from 1996 to 1998 after a long rehearsal period. She believes the director drew inspiration from their marriage while working on the scene.

“I suppose he was drawing from it,” said Kidman. “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 be careful with triangles.’ Because one person could feel ganged up on. But he was aware of that and knew how to manage us.”

The Australian-American actress clarified that she never felt ganged up on, “But there’s something about being a woman in that situation, too. And Stanley liked women. He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely on his character.”

Kidman previously reflected on the film in a 2017 interview with Deadline, expressing gratitude for having a “slightly zen approach to things” during the lengthy shoot. “Because I was married and had my kids there. I wasn’t in a rush to finish, to go somewhere else. I was there, with Stanley, and I didn’t care. Whatever,” she said.

Kubrick died of a heart attack at age 70 on March 7, 1999, just days after screening the final cut of Eyes Wide Shut for his family and the film’s stars.

Source: Deadline