By the time she arrived in Hollywood, aged just 23, Nicole Kidman was already well-known in her home country, Australia, and was obviously a promising star. Fearless, beautiful and talented, due to the culture of the time, she was kind of sidelined, in roles in which she was the “girlfriend”, precisely because she was married in real life to the biggest movie star, Tom Cruise.

The couple was perfect in the 1990s, a young version of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, passionate, talented and respected. Nicole participated in several films, as the sexy redhead, and unfortunately, none of the films she made with her husband worked out. Days of Thunder, A Far Far Away or Eyes Wide Shut were slammed by critics and didn’t pay off at the box office.

Little by little, she found her way, especially in independent cinema. When he starred in the film To Die For in 1996, he surprised the unwary with his perfect malice in an unsympathetic role. He amended it with a beautiful adaptation of Jane Campion for Portrait of a Lady, but it was not even nominated for an Oscar. Followed as “Tom Cruise’s wife”. Then came the millennium and Nicole was unsurpassed.

He starred in a record-selling Broadway play (alongside Ian Glenn) and accepted the challenge to embark on Baz Lurhman‘s musical Moulin Rouge and the psychological horror, The Others. It was the surprising divorce that landed her on the covers of magazines, but consistent work was finally gaining prominence. With The Hours, she won the Oscar for Best Actress and joined the team of the biggest movie stars, without being in the shadow of anyone.

For at least 22 years, Nicole Kidman became a “Meryl Streep“, a strong name always associated with intense, courageous and unique performances. Yes, it has tried its hand at comedy, but it is still far from making us laugh. Crying, however, is relentless.

With Tony, Oscar and Emmy (and a Grammy nomination as a singer), Nicole has rebuilt her personal life alongside country singer Keith Urban, whom she married more than 10 years ago and has two biological daughters.

Discreet, she never spoke “badly” about her ex-husband, from whom she keeps her distance. She is an always-on Oscar figure (she was nominated for her work as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos) and is synonymous with victory and resilience. He reaches 55 looking much younger, always working, always surprising us. A legend we are seeing being written.