Nicole Kidman has been one of the most successful leading ladies in Hollywood since her breakthrough in the 90s and is still consistently giving brilliant performances. While Kidman is best known for her work in film due to iconic movies she starred in such as Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, she has also done great work in television. Indeed, the actress played a vital role in Jean-Marc Vallée's successful HBO series Big Little Lies alongside Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz, and Shailene Woodley.
Updated November 3rd, 2022: If you can't get enough of the exceptional Nicole Kidman, you'll be happy to know this article has been updated with additional content and films.
Most recently, Kidman has taken on the role of playing the comedy legend Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos with Javier Bardem playing her husband Desi Arnaz. The film received reviews praising Kidman’s performance, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) and multiple major awards nominations. She won an Academy Award for her role in The Hours and was the first Australian actress to ever win in the category. She's also that woman who says, "Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this," in those annoying AMC Theaters ads. Here are Nicole Kidman’s best performances, ranked.
11 Moulin Rouge!
The 2001 Miramax musical/romance directed by Baz Luhrmann is one of Nicole Kidman's most iconic roles. In Moulin Rouge, she stars as Satine alongside Ewan McGregor, Natalie Mendoza, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, and Richard Roxburgh.
The epic jukebox musical follows the star-crossed pair Satine and Christian as they fight for their love despite their vastly different backgrounds in the legendary Parisian cabaret. Kidman received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and the film was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, ultimately winning two for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.
10 The Beguiled
The Beguiled is a war drama and second film adaptation of the Thomas P. Cullinan novel (the first came in 1971 and starred Clint Eastwood), and features a stellar cast including Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kristen Dunst, and Elle Fanning. A wounded war soldier in search of medical assistance finds himself at an all-girls school in the South and tension rises as the women eagerly try to comfort the soldier. The Beguiled received great reviews, something standard for a Sofia Coppola film, and is available to stream on Netflix.
9 The Others
Containing one of the greatest and most buzzed about plot twists in recent film history, the 2001 gothic horror film The Others stars Nicole Kidman as a deeply religious mother of two who lives with her children in a remote estate on the English coast during World War II.
The family soon finds themselves plagued by spooky and unsettling occurrences at their secluded home, causing them to make the frightening realization that spirits may be lurking within its walls. Kidman was singled out for her performance as the increasingly paranoid mother, with the Los Angeles Times proclaiming, "Kidman has thrown herself into her role as if it were Lady Macbeth on the London stage, with formidable results."
8 Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut is one of the final films by genius filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Released in 1999, the then-married iconic on-screen duo of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise star as Alice and Bill Harford in this psychosexual, Lacanian mystery about a doctor's surreal night wandering through the city after learning about his wife's fantasies. Kubrick is considered to be one of the greatest directors of all time, giving us masterpieces like Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange. The fact that he has never won an Academy Award is considered to be one of the greatest Oscar snubs of all time, and Kidman in particular is sexy, dark, and powerful in this film.
7 Cold Mountain
In the gripping 2003 period war drama Cold Mountain, Nicole Kidman shares the screen with Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, portraying a preacher's daughter during the American Civil War who anxiously awaits the return of her lover (Law) who has been serving for three years.
The woman is left to tend to her farm alone once her father passes, enlisting the help of a strong and resilient neighbor (Zellweger) as she prepares for her beau to make it home. The lead trio delivers superb and compelling performances in the Oscar-winning film, poignantly bringing the harsh realities of war to life along with a moving love story.
6 Rabbit Hole
John Cameron Mitchell's indie drama Rabbit Hole was released in 2010 and stars Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne West, Miles Teller, and Sandra Oh. Even though Rabbit Hole was a low-budget film it made an impact on cinema that year in a big way with Nicole Kidman's performance. The actress received Best Actress nominations at the Screen Actors Guild Award, Critic's Choice Movie Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and even the Academy Awards.
Rabbit Hole is a quiet, cryptic film about a couple mourning the loss of their child, and Kidman plays the mother learning to cope as she develops a relationship with the driver of the car which killed her son.
5 Lion
Nicole Kidman gives one of her best performances in Lion and received her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for her role in the film. Lion, directed by Garth Davis, is a drama that follows the story of a young man (Dev Patel) in search of his family, years after getting lost on a train and becoming separated from them, ultimately ending up thousands of miles away from home. Kidman appears as the man's adoptive mother who took him in after he was sent to an orphanage, encouraging the main character to track down his birth family and supporting him in his reunion efforts.
4 The Hours
The Hours was directed by Stephen Daldry and is perhaps one of the most monumental performances of Kidman's career, as it won the movie star her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 2003. In the riveting psychological drama, Kidman is brilliant as the influential English author Virginia Woolf, with the film chronicling the writer's struggles with both mental illness and severe depression as she attempts to write her novel.
Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore also appear in the drama alongside the star. In addition to the film's Best Actress win at the Oscars, it was also nominated for eight other Academy Awards including Best Picture. The score from Philip Glass is beautiful, mesmerizing, and influential.
3 Big Little Lies
Big Little Lies is the extremely successful HBO series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz, and Meryl Streep. Adapted from Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, Big Little Lies follows five powerful predominantly upper-class mothers living in Monterey, California fighting to be on top in a community that is based on betrayal, lies, wealth, and eventually the center of a murder. The show won a total of five Emmies and four Golden Globe Awards during its explosive two seasons.
2 Dogville
Filmmaker Lars Von Trier's experimental epic Dogville has an amazing ensemble cast (Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Ben Gazzara, Harriet Andersson, and James Caan) but is dominated by Nicole Kidman's heartbreaking, tense, and hypnotic performance as a woman fleeing the mob. A painful allegory about American violence, the film is set on a bare stage in a warehouse, where everything is designated by chalk on the ground. Its Brechtian techniques force the audience to pay even more attention to the increasingly harrowing, depressing story and phenomenal acting, and Kidman is a powerhouse.
1 Being the Ricardos
Nicole Kidman's best and most recent performance is her portrayal of Lucille Ball in the 2021 drama Being the Ricardos. Kidman completely disappears into the character and truly transforms into Lucille Ball. When watching this film, you know that you are watching an icon play an icon, and the two blur together seamlessly.
Javier Bardem plays the role of Desi Arnaz and together he and Nicole are magic on screen. The biographical drama earned three Academy Award nominations including Best Actress for Kidman, and she also won the Golden Globe for Actress in a Drama Picture. Her knockout performance as the beloved Hollywood star is sure to be talked about for many years to come.