Nicole Kidman Tears Up at ‘Lioness’ Premiere Talking Red-Hot Career

In a career filled with so many, Nicole Kidman is on another hot streak.

The Oscar-winning actress picked up a best actress prize last month at the Venice Film Festival for her critically acclaimed turn in Halina Reijn’s steamy Babygirl, only to see her new Netflix series The Perfect Couple rocket to the No. 1 spot on the streaming rankings days later. She next stars in the second season of Taylor Sheridan‘s Paramount+ series Lioness, which debuts Sunday, and she’s just about to jump in front of cameras on Amazon Studios’ Scarpetta opposite fellow Oscar winners Jamie Lee Curtis and Ariana DeBose and based on the Patricia Cornwell novel.

So, how is Kidman feeling about all the good work right about now? It’s complicated. “I wish my mama was here,” she told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday night while walking the red carpet at Hollywood’s Linwood Dunn Theatre. “That’d be the one thing I’d say. Everything is great with work but I wish my mama was here.”

Kidman’s eyes filled with tears as she relayed how bittersweet it is to be walking through this moment in her career and not have the chance to do it alongside her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, who died last month. It was Reijn who broke the news while accepting Kidman’s Volpi Cup for best actress. “I’m in shock, and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her,” wrote Kidman via Reijn. “I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you. The collision of life and art is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”

It remains so. “It’s been hard,” Kidman explained to THR on Wednesday. “It’s a hard road. I’m hanging in there.”

On a lighter note, Kidman was keen to talk about working with Sheridan on the newest season of his Paramount+ series that casts her as Kaitlyn Meade, a senior official in the CIA. “Talk about a powerhouse,” she said of Sheridan, who is juggling a massive slate of TV shows from the Yellowstone universe and beyond. “He is doing everything, and writing projects that are so good — he never stops. He’s bringing so much work to all of us and to the industry, and that’s incredible. It’s fantastic.”

More good news for Kidman: It was revealed this week that she’s been selected to receive this year’s prestigious Sherry Lansing Leadership Award during The Hollywood Reporter’s annual Women in Entertainment breakfast gala, set for Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. The actress, producer and philanthropist explained that she’s got a long history not only with Lansing but with Paramount.

“I’m very, very happy to be able to do it,” Kidman said last night of accepting the honor. “Sherry Lansing and I go back so far, so it will allow me to be able to shine a light, not on myself, on other women. That’s what I want to talk about [at the event]. I’m very happy to have been given the chance.”

She had the chance to find comfort in Lioness co-stars like Zoe Saldaña and Morgan Freeman and reps like CAA’s Kevin Huvane and Chris Andrews. Kidman made the scene at the Lioness afterparty at Layla where she was hugging and holding hands with many of them. Peek inside Kidman’s night out below.