Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise at the 1999 premiere of Eyes Wide Shut© Getty

Nicole Kidman reveals daughter Sunday's reaction to her movie with ex-husband Tom Cruise

The Oscar-winning actress starred in Stanley Kubrick's 1999 thriller Eyes Wide Shut opposite the Mission Impossible star, at the time her husband of nine years

July 16, 2024

Nicole Kidman has reached an inevitable side effect of being a movie star and a mom: when one of your kids watches one of your past, not so kid-friendly movies.

The A Family Affair actress shares two daughters with her husband Keith Urban, Sunday, 16, and Faith, 13, in addition to Bella, 31, and Connor, 29, who she adopted during her marriage to ex-husband Tom Cruise.

Though the Oscar winner typically keeps her kids out of the spotlight, she made an exception when being honored with an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year, which not only marked her youngest daughters' red carpet debut, but it was also the first time they got a glimpse of one of her raciest movies, Stanley Kubrick's 1999 erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut, in which she starred opposite her own then-husband of nine years, Tom.

Recently speaking with the Los Angeles Times about the making of the film, and how it has become a tradition for some to watch it over Christmas, when asked whether it's a movie she would watch with her daughters, she maintained: "Definitely not."

However, they did get a glimpse of it during their AFI outing, when a clip of it was shown in a video montage documenting their mom's wide-ranging, decades-long career.

"They saw the scene where I get stoned," Nicole recalled, and confessed: "They showed that and I was like, 'Ooooh. Golly. OK.' I sat next to my daughter, Sunday, watching that."

© Alamy

Nicole and Tom in Eyes Wide Shut

Still, however tricky of a situation it could have been, she in turn got quite the sweet reaction from Sunday. "Mom, that was good," she shared that Sunday told her, adding that when the montage went on to show a clip from 2004's Birth, the teenager doubled down with: "That was really good."

MORE: Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's daughter Sunday's 'loving' family celebrate her milestone day with her

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Nicole then noted: "I watched that scene and thought, 'Wow. That was really good.' And I never do that."

© Getty

The former couple, pictured above in 1996, were married from 1990 to 2001

She further shared that "people watching their own films feels slightly odd to me," so it had been a long time since she had seen the scenes herself, though emphasized: "I'm OK celebrating directors because it's their work."

MORE: Nicole Kidman's surprising confession as a 'naughty teen' in her own words

© Getty

Nicole and Sunday recently stepped out together for Paris Fashion Week

"But my own little part of it, it's like [groans]," she continued, adding: "But if you're a director, it's lovely to hear that you're proud of it. So I'm very, very proud of it."

MORE: Tom Cruise poses with fans as he is joined by rarely-seen son Connor in London

© Getty

The Kidman family during the AFI Life Achievement Award Gala

During her AFI honor, after receiving loving tributes from her husband Keith as well as from her former co-star Reese Witherspoon, Nicole took to the stage with her own speech, which included a shout-out to every director she has worked with throughout her career.

Among them were Phillip Noyce, who cast her in her breakout role in Dead Calm, Gus Van Sant, who directed To Die For, Jane Campion, her director in Portrait of a Lady, and Stephen Daldry, who directed her in The Hours, for which she won her first Oscar. Production of the film and her Oscar win came right around the time of her divorce from Tom, and Nicole noted: "You were by my side for the most vulnerable time of my life. You held my hand, you got me through it, and you won me an Oscar."

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