Tom Cruise has made a rare statement on his ex-wife Nicole Kidman, more than two decades after their divorce.
In 1990, a 28-year-old Cruise married a 23-year-old Kidman, and they spent the next 11 years shooting three films and adopting two children together until parting in 2001.
Although they featured in the 1990 film Days of Thunder while engaged, it was released in June of that year, and their spectacular Hollywood wedding took place in December.
The other two films were the late Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Far and Away (1992).
Now, reminiscing on Kubrick’s erotic mystery and how he and his then-wife earned the starring parts of Bill and Alice Harford, Cruise, 62, told Sight and Sound, “I flew out to his house and landed in his backyard.” I read the screenplay the day before, and we spent the day discussing it. “I knew all of his films.”
The renowned screenwriter was responsible for classic films such as The Shining (1980) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), but he died of a heart attack at the age of 70, just months before Eyes Wide Shut was released.
Cruise went on to pour praise on his Oscar-winning ex, which is unusual given that the Mission: Impossible actor and stuntman seldom discusses his personal life and previous relationships.
He went on, “Then it was just him and me getting to know each other. And as we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the character of Alice. Because, clearly, she’s an excellent performer.”
Cruise subsequently revealed that he informed Kubrick, “Whatever it takes [to make the film], we’re going to do it.”
Cruise plays a male character, which leads him to join an underground sex organization.
Cruise told the Independent, “I felt the picture was incredibly fascinating, and I wanted to have that experience.
“When I go to make a movie, I do a lot of detailed investigation and spend a lot of time with the people before I commit so that I understand what they need and want and they understand me and how we can work together and really create something very special.”
Kidman, who is now 57, has also spoken warmly about her experience filming Eyes Wide Shut.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times for the film’s 25th anniversary last year, the actress stated, “When Tom and I first started working with Stanley, it was in his house, and we didn’t even walk over to the sets at Pinewood [Studios].
“Six to eight weeks have passed, and we’re thinking, ‘Are we ever going to start?’ We just wouldn’t start. We were becoming familiar with one another, enough to share ideas.”
The plan was to shoot the picture in six months, but it took nearly two years, removing both actors from the market.
Kidman also said that she and ex-husband Cruise remained in a studio on set for part of the procedure.
“We had a home 10 minutes away, but we lived in that trailer,” she said. “Tom and I shared it because Stanley would remark, ‘You’re not all getting trailers.” We cannot afford it.”