Nicole Kidman Regrets Starring In One Tom Cruise Movie

Warner Bros

Frigid take: Nicole Kidman is one of the most gifted and flat-out watchable movie stars working today. Now in the 41st year of her film acting career, she has been nominated for five Oscars (with a Best Actress win for "The Hours"), and a staggering 15 Screen Actors Awards (with one win in 2017 for "Big Little Lies"). She feels perfectly at home in any genre, and, at 57 years old, is more prolific than ever thanks to her gleeful embrace of television films and miniseries. Kidman loves to work as much as we love watching her work!

For evidence of her versatility, you can zoom in on pretty much any four-year chunk of her career and be wowed. Take 1995 – 1999 for instance: she went from Caped Crusader love interest in "Batman Forever" (this is not a knock, as I'm not sure she's ever been more beautiful on screen) to Femme Fatale weather woman in "To Die For" to doomed seeker in the costume drama "The Portrait of a Lady" to action heroine in "The Peacemaker" to delightfully unabashed temptress in "Practical Magic" to subtly unsettled wife in "Eyes Wide Shut." That's crazy range.

Has Kidman made missteps? "Bombshell" is one of the worst films of the 21st century, so yes. And she's certainly better in the misfires "The Stepford Wives" and "Bewitched" than either film deserves. But no one can work as consistently as she does and not slip up from time to time. Does Kidman have any regrets? She does, and the one she's singled out before is probably not one you'd expect her to ding.

Universal

In a 1995 interview with Entertainment Weekly (her breakthrough year given the raft of critical acclaim for "To Die For"), Kidman revealed that there's one film she'd like to take back. At that point in her career, you might be expecting her to say "Billy Bathgate" (a massive flop based on an amazing novel) or "Days of Thunder" (a major box office disappointment given that it was a "Top Gun" reunion of Tom Cruise and director Tony Scott). While she does wish her character in the latter had been more than a stock love interest, she considers 1991's "Far and Away" a true mistake. As she told EW, "In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done a movie with him so quickly. I probably should have done more by myself to be seen independently."

Though Ron Howard's saga about two young Irish immigrants fighting to find a home in America is lousy with production value, it's ultimately a flat, charmless experience. And I think Kidman's instincts are spot on because, immediately following that film, she wasn't given much to do in either "My Life" (opposite a dying Michael Keaton, who, according to /Film, gives his seventh best performance in the movie) and "Batman Forever." She is spectacular in 1993's "Malice," but I'm hesitant to tell you why because most people haven't seen this Scott Frank-Aaron Sorkin-scripted wonder. It's just one of many hidden gems in Kidman's oeuvre – and if you're hot to do an overlooked Kidman double feature, I'd highly recommend pairing "Malice" with Park Chan-wook's deliciously dark "Stoker."