Nicole Kidman has opened up about the moment she found out her mother, Janelle Anne Kidman, had died — just minutes before she was due to go on stage at the Venice Film Festival.
The actor was attending the 2024 festival where she was set to receive the Best Actress award for her performance in Babygirl.
During a History Talks panel with Hoda Kotb — part of the live speaker series produced by The History Channel — Kidman said the news left her in shock.
“I was about to go out on stage, and I found out that my mother had passed,” she said.
“I went right back to my room in Venice, was getting into bed, and I was completely devastated.”
She described how overwhelming the loss felt in that instant, adding: “‘I’m not sure how I’m going to move forward or function now.’ She was so much a part of my existence.”
Kidman said she even attempted to leave Venice during the night, hoping to get back to her family as quickly as possible.
After struggling to navigate the city’s canals in the dark, she ultimately abandoned the plan and returned to her hotel.
“I remember getting into a boat in the canal, literally at night, trying to find my way to the airport, and then turning around going, ‘I can’t even do this,’” she said.
“Then I went back to bed. And I was alone. My husband wasn’t there, my children weren’t there. I was there to win an award, which should’ve been a beautiful thing. That there is the contrast of life.”
Reflecting on what came next, Kidman said the experience ultimately reinforced her sense that she could withstand extreme hardship — something she attributes to her mother’s influence.
“She told me: don’t ever let anyone break your spirit,” Kidman added.
Kidman also spoke about the sacrifices her mother made, and the opportunities she didn’t get in her own working life.
“She came from an era where she wasn’t given the career advice she would’ve loved. She raised us, supported my father, helped him get his PhD. She basically gave to her family and didn’t have the career that she would’ve loved to have had. She was exceptionally smart.”
She went on to share that it was her mom who encouraged her to stay connected to acting when work began to slow down.
“She was like, ‘I think you need to still keep your toe in the water. I wouldn’t completely give up.’ You’ve been doing this since you were little,” Kidman said. “And thank God she said that.”
That advice helped push her toward producing, a move that eventually led her to Rabbit Hole.
“I read a review of a play called Rabbit Hole, which was about the loss of a child, and I thought, what a wonderful thing to do having just given birth — this is how strange I am to go and to do a film about the thing I am most terrified of — to go and connect to the people that I now have such deep compassion for and want to understand and want to help.
“No one wanted to give us money. It was a $3.5 million film. We had to beg for every cent. But we got it made. It was scrappy, and it was a passion, and that was the beginning of my producing career.”