Nicole Kidman famously taught us that heartbreak can feel good (in a place like this). Apparently, breaking windows can also soothe the soul. During The Hollywood Reporter’s drama-actress Emmy roundtable, the Oscar winner opened up about a cathartic experience she had after a rough day of shooting Big Little Lies, when she threw a rock through a window.
“I threw a rock because [the door] was locked and I couldn’t get in. I’d never done that in my life,” Kidman told the roundtable. “I obviously [had a lot] pent up. I broke the whole thing. It cost a fortune.”
The Expats star was joined by True Detective: Night Country’s Jodie Foster, The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston, Griselda’s Sofía Vergara, Lessons in Chemistry’s Brie Larson, Shōgun’s Anna Sawai, and Feud’s Naomi Watts. Kidman told the other actors that she shared her window-breaking moment with her Big Little Lies costar Alexander Skarsgård and director Jean-Marc Vallée, who seemed surprised by the depths of her emotion.
“And then I went back the next day and I said to Alexander and Jean-Marc, ‘I threw a rock through the window,’ and they were like, ‘Whoa…’ I said, ‘I was kind of pissed off.’”
Kidman won an Emmy for lead actress in a limited series or anthology in 2017 for her harrowing portrayal of Celeste Wright, a victim of domestic abuse and sexual assault perpetrated by her husband, played by Skarsgård. Despite the heavy subject matter, Kidman said she maintained a “show must go on” mentality about Big Little Lies, even during grueling production days. “So you just keep going,” she said at the roundtable. “You show up and you do it and do it and do it and do it. And a lot of times, it’s six months of 12-, 14-hour days and there really isn’t the time to go, ‘I need to take care of myself.’”
In Expats, Kidman takes on similarly intense material as Margaret, a mother living in Hong Kong whose youngest child mysteriously goes missing. In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Kidman described intense roles as a “calling” and “a pull,” but at the roundtable she was honest about the toll they take on her. “After Expats, I went and did a comedy because I went crazy with my own psychology,” she told the roundtable. “I was like, ‘This is unhealthy.’ And it’s something that I think we need to talk about as actors—protecting your body so that you can live for as long as you are given on this earth. Because it’s very tough on the psyche.”
Kidman’s candor got Aniston a bit teary-eyed. “The body doesn’t know that what you’re going through [isn’t real],” said Vergara, in response. Kidman agreed, then stressed the importance of self-care: “The idea of being able to go and get a massage or a hot bath or even a pat on the back, just someone touching you and going, ‘It’s okay.’”
Kidman stars next in the Netflix romantic comedy A Family Affair, opposite Zac Efron and Joey King, as a mom who starts dating her daughter’s extremely famous boss. But there very well may be more darkness in store, as she and Big Little Lies costar and executive producer Reese Witherspoon have teased that they’re working on a third season of the series. “We’re at work on it,” Kidman told Variety. “And there’s a timeline and we’re doing it.” Hopefully she didn’t spend too much money replacing that window.