Nicole Kidman has reflected on the 2017 moment when she became a viral meme.
In footage taken at the Oscars that year, the Big Little Lies star could be seen clapping with her fingers pointing right back and only her palms touching in the middle.
The actor’s hands were compared to flippers at the time, and the moment quickly became a meme.
In a new interview with GQ, Kidman said she was applauding like that “because I had a massive heavy borrowed ring on and it was really painful, and I was scared of wrecking the jewellery”.
She added: “Ha! There’s always something behind the actual images that go out there, right?”
Back in 2017, she had confessed in a radio interview: “It was really awkward and I was like gosh, I want to clap. I don’t want to not be clapping, which is worse, right? ‘Why isn’t Nicole clapping?’”
Nicole Kidman with the most avant-garde applause of the night https://t.co/ZLuSDf8IVd pic.twitter.com/8dw4OYrCnR
— The Independent (@Independent) February 27, 2017
Kidman is currently promoting her new film Babygirl, in which she stars as a powerful CEO who jeopardises her career and family life by having an affair with a younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson.
In another recent interview, Kidman explained why she had to pause shooting sex scenes for the film.
Speaking to The Sun, Kidman revealed that performing scenes with Dickinson and Antonio Banderas, who portrays her husband in the movie, at times became too intense.
“There was an enormous amount of sharing and trust and then frustration. It’s like, ‘Don’t touch me,’” she said.
Kidman continued: “There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more. Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life! I’m over it.’
“It was so present all the time for me that it was almost like a burnout,” she added.
The Oscar winner said she was originally drawn to the sexually charged project because it was “an area [she’d] never been” before.
“I’ve always been on a quest as an actor,” she explained. “I’m always going, where have I not been? And what can I explore as a human being? And this was an area I’d never been.”
Writing from the Venice Film Festival, The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab said of Kidman’s performance in the movie: “We’ve all seen Kidman in TV dramas like The Perfect Couple and Expats, giving accomplished but slightly stiff and mannered performances. Here, she digs much deeper…
“A film that could have slipped into voyeuristic prurience is instead witty, subversive and emotionally revealing.”
