Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#40
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Nicole Kidman represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 37 years in, and Nicole is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Nicole Kidman appears in 63 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Nicole. Lion is the clearest case: a film rated 8.0 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, fantasy, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Susanne Bier, Mimi Cave, Halina Reijn and others, Nicole Kidman helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Lion (2016) as Sue Brierley · Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022) as Self · Dogville (2003) as Grace Margaret Mulligan
Career snapshot
Ranked #40 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
63
1989–2026
Career length
37 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.0
Lion
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Lion
Most frequent director
James Wan
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With James Wan
Most common genre
Drama
35 titles
Average runtime
1h 51m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.0
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1980s
6.6 average MV
The 1980s are where the work and the material meet. Dead Calm — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1980s
6.6
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1980s
6.6
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1980s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Dead Calm.
Most productive era
2010s
23 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.61 film | 6.76 films | 6.69 films | 6.417 films | 3.32 films |
| Action | — | 6.13 films | — | 6.42 films | 6.82 films |
| Thriller | 6.61 film | 6.82 films | 6.95 films | 6.27 films | 5.62 films |
| Comedy | — | 6.72 films | 5.74 films | 6.23 films | 4.64 films |
| Crime | — | 6.03 films | 7.03 films | 5.93 films | — |
| Romance | — | 6.54 films | 6.36 films | 6.24 films | 5.83 films |
| Horror | 6.61 film | — | 6.53 films | 6.61 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1989Dead Calm
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Rae Ingram.
Career peak
2003Dogville
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2016Lion
8.0 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Gillian Owens.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
63 of 63 films
as Grace Margaret Mulligan
Directed by Lars von Trier
as Grace Stewart
Directed by Unknown
as Virginia Woolf
Directed by Stephen Daldry
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Grace Margaret Mulligan
Dogville (2003)
Performance score8.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Grace Margaret Mulligan gives Nicole Kidman a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022)
Performance score8.2
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Grace Stewart
The Others (2001)
Performance score8.1
The Others asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Grace Stewart is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sue Brierley
Lion (2016)
Performance score8.0
Lion asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sue Brierley is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Grace Margaret Mulligan
Start here. Dogville is the clearest statement of what Nicole Kidman does — accessible, 178 minutes, and rated 7.8 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Nicole at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Others (2001)
Keeps the thriller register of Dogville but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Hours (2002)
A deliberate change of key after The Others — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Lion (2016)
Keeps the drama register of The Hours but asks for a colder reading of it.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022)
A deliberate change of key after Lion — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Benton
Director
2 films together
Notably The Human Stain
Baz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together
Notably Moulin Rouge!
Joel Schumacher
Director
2 films together
Notably Batman Forever
John Cameron Mitchell
Director
2 films together
Notably Rabbit Hole
James Wan
Director
2 films together
Notably Aquaman
Phillip Noyce
Director
1 film together
Notably Dead Calm
Tony Scott
Director
1 film together
Notably Days of Thunder
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably Far and Away
Bruce Joel Rubin
Director
1 film together
Notably My Life
Gus Van Sant
Director
1 film together
Notably To Die For
Jane Campion
Director
1 film together
Notably The Portrait of a Lady
Mimi Leder
Director
1 film together
Notably The Peacemaker
Griffin Dunne
Director
1 film together
Notably Practical Magic
Stanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together
Notably Eyes Wide Shut
Stephen Daldry
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hours
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably Panic Room
Lars von Trier
Director
1 film together
Notably Dogville
Anthony Minghella
Director
1 film together
Notably Cold Mountain
Frank Oz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Stepford Wives
Sydney Pollack
Director
1 film together
Notably The Interpreter
Nora Ephron
Director
1 film together
Notably Bewitched
George Miller
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Feet
Oliver Hirschbiegel
Director
1 film together
Notably The Invasion
Chris Weitz
Director
1 film together
Notably The Golden Compass
Noah Baumbach
Director
1 film together
Notably Margot at the Wedding
Rob Marshall
Director
1 film together
Notably Nine
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably Just Go with It
Lee Daniels
Director
1 film together
Notably The Paperboy
Philip Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Hemingway & Gellhorn
Park Chan-wook
Director
1 film together
Notably Stoker
Jonathan Teplitzky
Director
1 film together
Notably The Railway Man
Olivier Dahan
Director
1 film together
Notably Grace of Monaco
Rowan Joffé
Director
1 film together
Notably Before I Go to Sleep
Werner Herzog
Director
1 film together
Notably Queen of the Desert
Jason Bateman
Director
1 film together
Notably The Family Fang
Garth Davis
Director
1 film together
Notably Lion
Sofia Coppola
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beguiled
Karyn Kusama
Director
1 film together
Notably Destroyer
Joel Edgerton
Director
1 film together
Notably Boy Erased
John Crowley
Director
1 film together
Notably The Goldfinch
Jay Roach
Director
1 film together
Notably Bombshell
Ryan Murphy
Director
1 film together
Notably The Prom
Aaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together
Notably Being the Ricardos
Richard LaGravenese
Director
1 film together
Notably A Family Affair
Vicky Jenson
Director
1 film together
Notably Spellbound
Halina Reijn
Director
1 film together
Notably Babygirl
Mimi Cave
Director
1 film together
Notably Holland
Susanne Bier
Director
1 film together
Notably Practical Magic 2
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Baz Luhrmann
Director
2 films together · 7.0 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Moulin Rouge!James Wan
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
AquamanJohn Cameron Mitchell
Director
2 films together · 6.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Rabbit HoleRobert Benton
Director
2 films together · 5.9 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Human StainJoel Schumacher
Director
2 films together · 5.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Batman ForeverGarth Davis
Director
1 film together · 8.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
LionLars von Trier
Director
1 film together · 7.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DogvilleStanley Kubrick
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Eyes Wide ShutStephen Daldry
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HoursJohn Crowley
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The GoldfinchJoel Edgerton
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Boy ErasedAnthony Minghella
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cold MountainDavid Fincher
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Panic RoomJay Roach
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BombshellJonathan Teplitzky
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Railway ManGriffin Dunne
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Practical MagicDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Just Go with ItBruce Joel Rubin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
My LifeRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Far and AwayVicky Jenson
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SpellboundPark Chan-wook
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StokerGus Van Sant
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
To Die ForPhillip Noyce
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Dead CalmAaron Sorkin
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Being the RicardosRowan Joffé
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Before I Go to SleepGeorge Miller
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy FeetTony Scott
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Days of ThunderSydney Pollack
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InterpreterRyan Murphy
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PromPhilip Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Hemingway & GellhornChris Weitz
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Golden CompassOliver Hirschbiegel
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The InvasionMimi Leder
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PeacemakerOlivier Dahan
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Grace of MonacoJane Campion
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Portrait of a LadyKaryn Kusama
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DestroyerSofia Coppola
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BeguiledJason Bateman
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Family FangWerner Herzog
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Queen of the DesertNoah Baumbach
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Margot at the WeddingHalina Reijn
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BabygirlRichard LaGravenese
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Family AffairFrank Oz
Director
1 film together · 5.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Stepford WivesLee Daniels
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The PaperboyRob Marshall
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NineMimi Cave
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
HollandNora Ephron
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BewitchedSusanne Bier
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Practical Magic 2Six degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Lion
as Sue Brierley
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Moulin Rouge!
as Satine
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Lion
as Sue Brierley
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Kubrick by Kubrick
as Self (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Dogville
as Grace Margaret Mulligan
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Nicole Kidman has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
37 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
35 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Eyes Wide Shut
as Alice Harford
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Dogville
as Grace Margaret Mulligan
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Grace of Monaco
as Grace Kelly
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Eyes Wide Shut
as Alice Harford
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Northman
as Queen Gudrún
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Northman
as Queen Gudrún
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Spellbound
as Queen Ellsmere (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Batman Forever
as Dr. Chase Meridian
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Zach Grenier
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
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Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
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Reference
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