UNEARTHING THE PAST

Tom Cruise Makes Rare Comment on Ex-Wife Nicole Kidman

In a new interview, the actor reflected on working alongside his then-wife on the sexual thriller “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999.

Tom Cruise reflected on his experience co-starring alongside ex-wife Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) in a new interview, praising her as a “great actress.” Cruise told Sight and Sound that he flew out to Kubrick’s house to discuss his part in the film. “It was basically he and I getting to know each other,” Cruise recalled. “And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice]. Because, obviously, she’s a great actress.” In the movie, Cruise and Kidman portray an unhappily married couple who become wrapped up in a world of secret societies and masked orgies. In real life, they had marital troubles of their own. The two married in 1990 and divorced in 2001. Cruise, 62, and Kidman, 57, don’t often speak about their relationship in interviews. Cruise—known for starring in the Mission: Impossible franchise—would go on to marry and have a child with actress Katie Holmes, though they split in 2012. Lately, he has been rumored to be dating 37-year-old Spanish actress Ana De Armas. Kidman married country singer Keith Urban in 2006.