Although Nicole Kidman’s time on the silver screen isn’t over, the Australian star has announced an unexpected career move – she’s becoming a death doula.
The Academy Award-winning actress revealed her cleavage while speaking at the University of San Francisco over the weekend. He said his decision was motivated by his deep sadness following the death of his 84-year-old motherJanelle Kidman, in September 2024.
“When my mom was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much a family could give,” Kidman said San Francisco Chronicle. “Between my sister and I, we have so many children and our jobs and our jobs, and wanting to take care of her because my father was no longer in the world, and that’s when I went, ‘I wish there were these people in the world who were there to stay impartial and just provide comfort and service’.”
Kidman admitted her decision to become a death doula might seem “a little strange”, but said it was “part of her expansion” into the future.
Although the actor did not say how this new role would affect his future time on screen, he found that “stamina”, which he believed to mean “taking care of (his) health and taking care of (his) mental health and being able to show up and give (him) all and not coast,” was the most challenging part of his work.
Kidman has been busy lately. Last year, she participated in an exciting romance thriller A female child and psychological arousal The Netherlands. This year, he has dominated the small screen, appearing in Margo Got Money Troubled and Shoesa dramatic thriller in which the actor faces death head-on as a forensic pathologist.
According to Go Gentle Australia, a national charity that works to promote choice at the end of life, bereavement doulas provide non-medical support to health care or hospice care. They can provide emotional, spiritual and practical support to terminally ill patients and their families.
The demand for death doulas has been increasing around the world, including Australiaas well as the growth of the “death-positive” movement. There have been changes in events designed to facilitate healthy and open conversations about death, including in Melbourne. Salon of Death which happened last month.
Kidman joins a string of other celebrities who have gone on to do amazing things, including Tom Selleck, who became an avocado farmer following his success in Magnum PI, and Sixteen candles star Michael Schoeffling, who opened a wood shop. However, many of these changes came after she largely retired from Hollywood, something Kidman has not suggested she do.
Elsewhere in Kidman’s speech over the weekend, he mentioned his love of classical literature and said Stanley Kubrick, who directed him in. Eyes Wide Shutas one of the main teachers and mentors of his work. However, he did not mention her recently divorce from musician Keith Urbanand she also deftly dodged a joke made by a moderator about her ex-husband Tom Cruise’s height.
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Nell Geraets is a Culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect through X or email address.
