Nicole Kidman is everywhere. From ‘Babygirl’ to ‘The Perfect Couple,’ a look at the actress’s firm hold on film and TV screens.
If you think you’ve been seeing a lot of Nicole Kidman lately, you’re right. The Oscar-winning actress has been seemingly everywhere on the big and small screens.
While she’s acted in at least one project every year since 2001, Kidman has recently ramped up her output to include a whopping six projects in 2024 alone.
Fans of the Aussie actress were sent into a tailspin after the steamy trailer for her upcoming film Babygirl dropped on Tuesday. In it, she plays a CEO who engages in a passionate affair with an intern.
“I’ve made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this,” she told Vanity Fair about the role.
The erotic thriller arrives in theaters on Christmas and might serve as its own holiday gift from the actress who has practically created a subgenre of wealthy power women keeping a secret. (Think Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and The Perfect Couple — and that’s just TV.)
Though Kidman is arguably best known for her film roles, the actress has also become an increasingly visible presence on streaming services. In fact, her near-constant presence on various series has some questioning her choices, with Indiewire asking, “Is Nicole Kidman making too much TV?”
Kidman, however, is unfazed. She told L’Officiel in August, “I’ve fallen in love with the long format because I like the building of character and I like that they’re limited.” She added that working on a series has a “cinematic feel” and a “slow burn” that she appreciates.
Her appreciation appears to be strong as she’s logged as many or more TV credits than film in the past few years. In 2023, she appeared in DC Comics film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (a project she insisted was about working with director James Wan rather than the paycheck), which was in addition to the first season of Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount+ and Hulu’s Faraway Downs with fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman.
In 2024, she’s doubled that output and already has big plans for 2025.
Here’s a look at the actress’s packed lineup, which doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
January-February 2024: Expats
Kidman kicked off the year with Expats, a Prime Video limited series based on the novel The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee. The show follows an American woman who moves with her husband (Brian Tee) to Hong Kong, where they form a bond with other expats while dealing with a family tragedy. While one critic called Kidman “mesmerizing,” another accused her of “running on the fumes of her talent.”
June 2024: A Family Affair
This Netflix romantic comedy is Kidman’s first performance in 2024 in which she’s in a May-December romance. In the film, the actress stars as a widowed writer who gets entangled with an actor (Zac Efron) who also happens to be her daughter’s (Joey King) boss. This is the second time Kidman and Efron have gotten together onscreen, the first being 2012 film The Paperboy.
September 2024: The Perfect Couple
Returning to Netflix, this time for a mystery series based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, Kidman stars as a successful novelist whose son (Billy Howle) is about to be married at her and her husband’s (Liev Schreiber) lush home on Nantucket when the wedding is suddenly derailed by a murder. While one review said it was “retreading some well-worn ground” and audiences would need to decide if they liked Kidman enough to stick around, another called it “soapy fun.”
October 2024: Lioness Season 2
The actress returns for Season 2 of the Taylor Sheridan series (formerly called Special Ops: Lioness) starring Zoe Saldaña as Joe, a CIA recruit who’s working in the Lioness program, which is made up of other female Marines. Kidman plays a high-ranking CIA official who is also Joe’s boss. One outlet noted how unusual it was to have a series with two Oscar winners (Morgan Freeman being the other) whose first season logged a mere 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. Season 2 premieres Oct. 27.
November 2024: Spellbound
Joining a starry voice cast led by Rachel Zegler as a princess who must break a spell that has turned her parents into monsters, Kidman lends her voice to Spellbound as Queen Ellsmere.
December 2024: Babygirl
The Halina Reijn film is the second of the year to feature Kidman as the older woman in a passionate affair with a younger man — this time with Harris Dickinson as an intern to Kidman’s CEO. With strong reviews — 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and the actress’s performance being called “spectacular” and “fearless” — the erotic thriller arrives as the actress’s first theatrical release of 2024.
Kidman is also keeping the momentum strong in the coming year. Season 3 of HBO’s Big Little Lies, which earned the actress (and executive producer) two Emmys, will reportedly be returning in 2025. She will also be starring in Holland, Michigan, a film about a Midwestern woman who suspects that her husband is cheating on her.
