INTERVIEW

Nicole Kidman will become princess Grace

It was the openings film of the Cannes Film festival and a film to which I’ve been looking forward a lot, story and fashion wise. Grace of Monaco, yet another highlight for Nicole Kidman about which, calling us all the way from down under, she happily told us everything for about fifteen minutes.

Why were you interested in playing Grace?

I thought the script was incredibly fascinating. I didn’t know that much about her life. My mother, of course, grew up with Grace and Marilyn (Monroe). The two of them were the most iconic actresses of their generation.  I had seen Grace in the Hitchcock films but I didn’t really know anything about her life. Although our story only covers a 6 month period, it is the pivotal time in her life where she comes to understand her commitment to her marriage and her people as Princess Grace, Her Serene Highness.

What was it about her story that appealed to you at its core?

Her desire for home and a family and her leaving the most extraordinary life that she’d worked toward.  Our film starts where she now has two children, she’s married, and she’s in an ivory tower in a way. But she still has the desire to act. That was something that I thought, “I would know how to play that.” That’s probably what I related to most about her. I was also attracted to that push-pull of her dilemma ‘What is my destiny?’ Sometimes, some people have a higher responsibility. And Grace was one of them.

You look incredibly like her on screen!

Through the work of really great hair and makeup people I’m able to change the way I look (laughs)! That’s how I morphed into Virginia Woolf (The Hours) and so many other characters I’ve played. Grace Kelly was a classic beauty. The hair and makeup artists, through shading and elongating the eyebrows and cutting and dying my hair blonde, helped me to resemble her.  If they have succeeded in making me look like Grace, then I am deeply flattered.

The film will be in Dutch cinemas tomorrow, and it seems we all can’t wait to watch the film. Why is that, you think?

I think there’s still a huge love of glamor in this world and Grace embodied that. The clothes are just exquisite, and the way (director) Olivier Dahan has shot it is very sumptuous.  Olivier is also a painter and the film reflects his artistic eye.

MUST BE DIVINE TO GET TO WEAR SUCH GREAT COSTUMES

Because I have children, a lot of the time I tend to be very casual, and many of the films I’ve chosen to do recently have been very raw and certainly not glamorous. So to have the chance to be beautiful and wear beautiful clothes and to have everyone focused on making me look like her was just glorious. It has revived my love of fashion, which I had very much in my teens and early twenties.  When I wore the ball gown for the scene at the end of the film, I was walking through the Hotel de Paris in Monaco thinking, this is like a dream. The fairytale part of making this movie was the clothing and the jewels. And I got to wear them every day.

I UNDERSTOOD THE LOCATIONS WERE MARVELLOUS

We had the best locations ever.  It was very authentic because we actually filmed on the French Riviera and in Monaco. We had access to a lot of the places Grace visited in the Principality.

You had such an amazing collaboration, all those great looks and locations, and your film even was the opening film in Cannes

I was there on the jury last year which was one of the greatest experiences of my life. and so it’s lovely to go back and be there with the opening night film. And in terms of Grace, that’s where she first met Rainier. There’s something full circle in that too.