POST 31

By  Darrell J Banks

CR 2014,2005

NICOLE KIDMAN

This is a past article I wrote while the roles Hollywood has written for her have slowed down since I wrote t

his article, little Nicky is about to break out again as Grace Kelly.

The Actress Nicole Kidman and writing for her.

By Darrell J. Banks

Copy Right 2005

All Rights Reserved

Perhaps it=s pretentious to presume one can write for an actress you have never spoken too. Pretentious to imagine and dream that you the writer can develop a screenplay for a box office smash. But that is the premise of this article. Unless one is married or divorced from an actress such as Sandra Oh, one needs a muse to create inspiration for an actress such as Nicole. Having once seen Ms. Kidman live and in person, the shyness, the demur quality and yes the beauty is inspiration to type well.  Yet, the roles she has selected over the past ten years are idiomatic. Nicole searches for a script with a remembrance of past characters.

Recently, I also saw a photograph of Nicole Kidman with Lauren Bacall. Back in the forties Lauren looked very much like the current Nicole. Then, Ms. Bacall played the smoky, vixen, good girl. Yet her characters were driven to the bad guy. Never to forget a sequel Hollywood grabbed Nicole Kidman from Australia to perfect the vixen role for the past ten years. Surprisingly, in a recent article Ms. Bacall, was quoted by the BBC that today=s actors are A of minuscule talent.@ A slur perhaps.  Yet, those who write for Nicole Kidman would find this quote abhorrent.

Consistent with the intelligent sex symbol, Kidman=s   sex roles have expanded since A Batman Forever@ where she played the infamously named    Dr. Chase Meridian. The Bond girl name, the double entendre has three meanings. Rewind from 2005.  Ms. Kidman has stretched her acting repertoire to include the abused sex symbol in ADogville,@ the bad wife of AEyes Wide Shut= and of course the seductress in ATo Die For.@

Symbolic of Marilyn Monroe with a brain Kidman plays the prevailing dumb blonde to perfection in A The Stepford Wives.@  This role continues in the pending A Bewitched.@

As a screenwriter, one rarely writes for the same actress over and over again.  For, unlike the studio, system of days gone by the writer sits on the sidelines as the studio revolving door of redheads, blondes, and brunettes twirl by. Inspired by the similar roles your dialog may ensnare the synapses of some busy actress. Hopefully it’s Ms. Kidman who remains busy with four films per year, while many other Oscar winners, the Roberts, Tomei=s etc. select less work each year.

 Ms. Kidman has chosen roles that Meryl Streep in her prime may have declined. Yet, like Bacall and Streep, the role of the abused blonde is predominant in Hollywood cinema.

The Films

The early Kidman films, AEyes Wide Shut@ and ATo Die for@ feature the good girl turned bad. That is the marketing premise but the writers of these movies, Stanley Kubrick and Buck Henry respectively are no slouches, and they use a three-act structure to expand the role of the dumb blonde. In Kubrick=s film the wife is the backdrop yet she controls the flow of the movie.  Tom Cruise is the featured protagonist.  As the subtle antagonist Kidman beguiles Tom into what she wants, and his eyes are wide shut to the manipulation.

  In ATo Die For@she played the protagonist spinning a web around her husband once again.

Who would suspect the weather girl? Why would you? Ms. Kidman continued this theme in ADogville@  Never one to shy from the sexual provocateur role Ms. Kidman perfected this vixen role with a vengeance.  Like Barbara Stanwyck in ADouble Indemnity,@ she earns her revenge.

In A DogVille@ Nicole is passed from man to man, a fitting pawn of the town=s paternal system. Yet, her character has a self-inflicted wound; she has chosen sexual abuse over her role as the gangster=s daughter. Abused, yet willing, she accepts the towns’= rapes for more than two hours. Ironically Ms Bacall starred in ADogville@with Ms. Kidman Why is Nicole afraid? Why would a town seek to protect her and destroy her?

As a screenwriter reviewing this trend in roles, one should steer Nicole away from the abused vixen. Yet, Ms. Kidman has selected this role once again in A The Interpreter.@ Perhaps market share?

In the same April 5, 2005 article (BBC UK) Lauren Bacall cited the lack of acting skills of today=s stars. . When Ms. Bacall starred in the pictures A Key Largo@ and  A Sex and the Single Girl@  sex was different or so we are lead to believe by today’s= censors.

 So, as a screenwriter choose to expand the sex vixen=s role. For that is the ultimate quest. Like fried chicken today=s actresses are packaged and ready to go. Select one, and then dilute the bad stuff for a long and prosperous career. Until next month when we cover the actors Tom and Laurence and break them out of the cracker jack box. Ciao.