Nicole Kidman received the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award on Saturday evening, as an A-list group of her friends and collaborators looked back on her long career in Hollywood.
Reese Witherspoon, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts, Zoe Saldaña, Aaron Sorkin, Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Joey King, Mike Myers and husband Keith Urban all took the stage at the Dolby Theater throughout the event to pay their respects to Kidman. To close the evening, Meryl Streep presented him with the prize.
Streep – joking after a clip aired, “has anyone noticed that [costume designer] Ann Roth stuck his nose in it Hours? You’re welcome” – took the time to reflect on his work alongside Kidman in the second season of Big little lies.
“For me, that’s the hardest part of constantly being called the greatest actress of my generation,” Streep teased as the audience roared, theatrically throwing their hands above their heads, “What’s the hardest part? Oh! The hardest part is when you find yourself facing, or playing with, another person who is also really, really, really, really, really great. is difficult.”
“It’s like someone you work with all day and you go home – ‘It was a great day, a great day,’ and you go home and you’re like ‘How did she does that?'” the star teased while pretending to do it. pour a glass. “‘I could do that.’ “No, I don’t think I could.” ‘Yes you could!’ “No, no, you couldn’t do that,” miming drinking.
Miles Teller, Reese Witherspoon, Lee Daniels, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Zac Efron
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for AFI
Looking back Big little liesStreep recalls, “That’s when I really connected with Nicole’s tremendous gifts, her process and her seismic bank of emotions that she locked in there, her endurance and her desire to be an artist and her discipline. .”
She remembers when Kidman chose to shoot a very emotional screaming scene on the first day and repeat it over and over again with the same passion. “I haven’t gotten over that first day, I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Streep added. “For me it was traumatic because I thought this woman was a Valkyrie. How can she stand this? Never let go, never let go.
Accepting the award, Kidman exclaimed, “Meryl Streep, I love you, I always have; I don’t know what it is but you are a beacon of excellence, warmth and generosity but you have been my beacon, so to receive this from you, you have no idea. My husband will confirm it, my parents will confirm it, it’s always been you and no one can touch you.
In her speech, Kidman discussed her journey to Hollywood stardom, which began in Australia and where she slept on the floor and friends’ couches while she tried…
