The final film by Stanley Kubrick, the subversive psychological drama/erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut, is seemingly an accumulation of a lifetime’s worth of work and personal history. The film had an interminable shoot, lasting nearly 400 days in London. Kubrick died unexpectedly three months before the film’s release in 1999, creating a mythical aura to a film by a director filled to the brim with myth. However, the legend that has stuck with Eyes Wide Shut since its release is that its lengthy production and subject led to the divorce between superstar Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Because of the intense nature of Kubrick’s exacting precision and his probing examination of a soon-to-be split marriage, working on Eyes Wide Shut should’ve been a harrowing experience for the two stars. In Kidman’s case, she would’ve been happy to shoot it for an additional five years.
Stanley Kubrick’s Hypnotic Examination of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s Marriage in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
Adding to his mystique as a reclusive artist, Stanley Kubrick mulled over projects towards the end of his career, with seven years in between The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, and a whopping 12 years between the release of his Vietnam War film and Eyes Wide Shut. Of course, Kubrick, the ultimate perfectionist, was not sitting around procrastinating, as he underwent extensive research and development on these projects, as he did with all his films. The film, based on the novella Traumnovelle (translated to Dream Story), follows Dr. Bill Hartford’s (Cruise) existential crisis upon learning that his wife, Alice (Kidman), had contemplated having an affair 12 months earlier, causing him to embark on a cryptic late-night odyssey in a dream-like New York City where he infiltrates a masked orgy of an unnamed secret society.
At the height of his stardom, Tom Cruise, alongside his wife, Nicole Kidman, temporarily transported their residency to England to work with Kubrick, whose fear of flying caused all his movies to film almost exclusively in the United Kingdom. As expected, Cruise and Kidman were put through the wringer, with Cruise performing 95 takes of walking through a door. In a Machiavellian tactic to extract feelings of distrust, Kubrick would direct each actor separately and forbid them to share notes, notably the imaginary flashback of Alice making love to a naval officer that haunts Bill throughout the film. While renowned for his set design and meticulous period detail, Kubrick focused his attention on psychoanalyzing the tabloid-friendly celebrity couple, encouraging Cruise and Kidman to privately confess their fears about marriage and commitment to their director.
Nicole Kidman Would’ve Shot ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ For Another Five Years
It’s easy to indulge in the enticing legend-making surrounding Kubrick. While the alleged notion that Eyes Wide Shut drove Cruise and Kidman apart, the latter denied any validity in this theory to The New York Times in 2020. Despite the thorny subject and grueling production, Kidman has positive memories of driving go-karts with her family after shooting. Kubrick is notorious for pushing actors to their absolute limits, but she felt protected by the director when filming nude or sexually explicit scenes. Not only was Eyes Wide Shut a gratifying experience, but Kidman would’ve stayed in England longer if the film demanded it. “I would have shot that thing for five years, I didn’t care,” she told the BBC. “I’m with the greatest filmmaker. I’m with my husband. I’ve got my kids there,” she explained. Kidman developed a close, personal relationship with Kubrick. When she learned about his sudden death, needless to say, she was devastated, as she dropped the phone and mournfully screamed. The abruptness of his passing was incredibly jarring for her.
Considering that Eyes Wide Shut is one of the finest films of the last 30 years, and a capstone achievement of a legendary director, any creatively inspired actor would look back on the experience with fondness. Working with Stanley Kubrick is daunting from afar, but the appreciative Nicole Kidman recalled to the Los Angeles Times that the film was made collaboratively between her, Cruise, and the director, and she was impressed by his lack of egoism on the set and implored the married couple to improvise ideas during rehearsals. While developing the Bill and Alice characters, Kidman noticed that Kubrick was highly astute when examining the Hollywood power couple, saying that he was “mining” their relationship throughout the shoot without it ever coming across as predatory. Kidman also debunks the myth that Kubrick never completed editing Eyes Wide Shut before he died, as she claims that he was “very happy” with the cut that was released to theaters.
Nicole Kidman’s praise of Stanley Kubrick and the challenging but immensely rewarding experience working on Eyes Wide Shut highlights her professionalism and commitment to her craft and shatters many of the fallacies surrounding Kubrick as a public figure. He was not a cold, hermetic person incapable of connecting with human beings. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had the most idyllic life imaginable, yet they voluntarily dropped everything to fly to England to work with this master filmmaker for as long as it took.
Eyes Wide Shut is available to rent or buy on Apple TV+ in the U.S.
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