Nicole Kidman: 'I Was The Loneliest I'd Ever Been After Winning My Oscar'

Speaking at the Women In The World conference, Nicole Kidman has opened up about her divorce from Tom Cruise, surrogacy, and sexism in Hollywood

Nicole Kidman has been receiving rave reviews for her portrayal of scientist Rosalind Franklin in the West End production of Photograph 51. Speaking at the Women In The World conference, she explains how she made it this far...

On Sexism In Hollywood 'I've worked with a lot of men as directors who have given me extraordinary roles. The problem is it's starting at the ground level where the females are not given the chance to become great directors. We have to change that in terms of, we have to go out and pay and see Suffragette because the story needs to be told. Buy tickets, see the movies, demand the stories and they will get made.'

On Whether She'll Move To Working Behind The Camera 'I'm fortunate that I can champion some stories and certain film makers and help them out... It's something I'm fortunate enough to do. My husband always says, 'you always jump in and make decisions and deal with all of the consequences later.' I jumped into Photograph 51 and I was in the rehearsal hall and terror hit me.... I didn't think it out but that's boded well for me, but also not well.'

On Her Divorce From Tom Cruise 'To be completely honest, I was running away from my life at that time. I was running away from the reality of it. I embraced my own life which took a number of years... That culminated in winning an Oscar and that caused an epiphany - this is not the answer. I was sitting in the Beverly Hills hotel with a gold statue and I was the loneliest I'd ever been. I was jolted out of the idea that 'this is gonna heal me'.'

On Having A Child With The Help Of A Surrogate 'There's no difference [with the various ways you choose to have a child] because the love is so profound, you have that child and you go 'I'm willing to die for this person'. And that changes everything.'

On Her Future 'I remember standing in the garden with my father and my mother before he passed away... When I said to my father 'what does it all mean?' He said to take care of others. And that had a profound effect on me. And that's a huge part of my purpose now in my life.'