Nicole Kidman, 59, Says This Childhood Comment Still Stings Today
The Emmy winner didn’t always love her unique features.
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Academy Museum
Nicole Kidman, 59, reflected on the backhanded compliment that stuck with her into adulthood.
“I started modeling at 14 and 15, and I started acting at the same time. I wanted to be an actress, but I was using the modeling to make money so that I could fund my acting,” she told Allure.
Despite her blossoming teen modeling career, the feedback she got on her looks was not exclusively positive.
“People used to always say to me, ‘When you grow up, you’re gonna be so pretty,” Kidman recalled.
Nicole Kidman recalled people telling her as a teen that she would be pretty older.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
“I was like, ‘Huh?’” she added.
Those comments made Kidman question her appearance: “I’d look in the mirror, and I’d go, ‘What does that mean? I wanna be pretty now.’”
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“But I suppose I was a gawky kind of teenager,” she admitted. “I was all arms and legs, and I didn’t have control over my body, in a way.”
Kidman was already 5-foot-10 in her teens. Now, at 5-foot-11, she is still often taller than her peers.
Nicole Kidman was three inches taller than her ex-husband Tom Cruise. Pictured here at the 1995 Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California.
Lee Celano/Reuters
The six-time Golden Globe-winning actress and producer has previously said that her height sometimes affected her career negatively.
But it has not held her back in her relationships: Kidman has proudly dated men who are shorter than her.
Kidman’s first husband, actor Tom Cruise, was 5-foot-7.
Her second husband, singer Keith Urban—whom she divorced in September 2025 after 19 years of marriage—was 5-foot-10.
Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas.
Taylor Hill/WireImage
Looking back, the Moulin Rouge! actress could understand the comments about her appearance.
“I understand what they were saying, in a way,” Kidman said. “But I feel pretty now.”
Age has given her a new perspective and acceptance, too.
“I’m grateful to have what I have and to be able to use it,” she said. “I also think because of my coloring and the way in which my face is structured, I can morph and change so easily because I don’t really have any dominant features.”
Nicole Kidman said her naturally curly, red hair made it harder for her to fit in as a teenager. Pictured here at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival in France.
Eric Gaillard/Reuters
Kidman, who often dons wigs for movie roles, said that another feature that stood her apart as a teenager was her curly, red hair.
In 2022, Kidman told BBC Radio about how her feelings of not belonging led her to pursue acting.
“I was very tall and very pale. I had red, curly hair and I was covered in freckles,” Kidman said. “I think my sense of belonging, in terms of belonging to the cool kids, wasn’t there.”
But Kidman discovered that she could act: “That became the place that I felt comfortable.”
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