On April 11, a record-breaking crowd watched as actor Nicole Kidman visited USF to speak on a variety of subjects, including the importance of education, charity and her interest in becoming a death doula. Her appearance marked the 27th edition of the Silk Speaker series, which has previously hosted the likes of Mindy Kaling, Trevor Noah and Angela Davis.
Kidman’s presence at the University was no surprise as she emphasized the importance of education in her life. “I’m the daughter of academics… my life when I started out was shaped by education and being around people who valued knowledge and information.”
Her father who studied biochemistry, and her mother who was a member of a feminist coalition, largely formed the values she holds today. Emphasis on women’s rights and mental health are evident in her career ventures as she heads up the Kidman Center, a nonprofit devoted to providing mental health support for teenagers, and Blossom Films, which aims to improve gender quality in entertainment.
In reference to a promise she made at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, Kidman said, “I made a pledge…to work with a female director every 18 months…and I’ve done way more than that—but it’s still not enough.” She described surpassing her own goal as a blessing, “Being able to put women primarily at the center of the storytelling is incredibly exciting.”
Her interest in storytelling began quite early. As a young girl with fair skin, her mom kept her inside on beach days. Instead of running around with the other children, she turned to books. “I would read incessantly… I had a list of a hundred novels, and I would just tick them off. I fell in love with the Brontë sisters and with writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky,” Kidman said as she urged young people to take up reading.
“That formed me as an actor; reading deeply, understanding characters, feeling what they feel. That’s where my foundation came from.” Kidman emphasized that students who wanted a leg up should focus on making connections and asking questions. “You’re not going to be the smartest person in the room, that’s something we all know. There are very few of those. So what can you do? You can work hard. You really have to dig in and work hard.”
She got her start in acting as a young girl, “I was 14 and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I was one of the rare ones.” However, finding her footing in entertainment wasn’t always easy and entailed a lot of rejection. Kidman told a story of one of these early roadblocks; “I remember auditioning for “Annie” and they literally measured you before you came in, you couldn’t even audition if you weren’t under five foot two,” the actor said, laughing about being denied from the audition. “There’s always barriers… So much of life is about how we handle rejection and the failures, so much of our success is based on how we respond to failure…get back up, brush yourself off and go, move on.”
Mentorship was described as a hugely important tenet for Kidman. One of her great mentors was Stanley Kubrick, a director renowned for works such as “A Clockwork Orange” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Kidman described how lucky she was to foster a relationship with Kubrick; “I got to work with the greatest filmmaker… he was a deeply philosophical man and I got to sit on the floor of his office and read his books and ask him questions…He let me get away with so much, but he was one of the greatest teachers I’ve had and changed my life. So I was incredibly fortunate to work with him.”
The actor, famous for cinema classics like “Eyes Wide Shut” and “The Stepford Wives,” stunned the audience as she described her next interest as becoming a death doula. “There’s an enormous amount of emphasis put on birth… but what do we do at the end?”
Kidman described the inspiration came from the passing of her mother, Janelle, in 2024. “She was lonely…There was only so much the family could provide… and that’s when I thought, I wish there were people in the world who could sit there impartially and just provide solace and care.”
That theme of caring for others came up many times throughout her talk, as she spoke to the collective responsibility we all have toward the next generation. “That’s why we’re all here; trying to take care of the young people, educate you and give you a future that is bright.”
The tone of the Silk Speaker event was bright and inspirational, despite the heavy downpour occurring outside. After the event, Kidman was mobbed by crowds of students asking for selfies- a clear indication to her cultural impact.
While at the event, Jeff Silk, cofounder and sponsor of the Silk series announced the next speaker as Steph Curry, much to the delight of the audience present who responded with resounding cheers. In his introduction of Kidman, Silk stressed that her interview was one of the most highly attended in the series history. Event organizers estimated total viewers, in person and virtually, to be about 1,500.
Despite Kidman’s professional advice and emphasis on education, her interview felt authentic and real. In an honest moment breaking from Kidman’s trademark poise and glamour, she confessed to the audience, “I still feel like I’m starting out. I don’t ever want to take any of this for granted and I’m always learning.”
