Nicole Kidman Shares the Reason Why Walking a Red Carpet Makes Her Feel Like the \201cOpposite of Cinderella\201d
\201cI’m happy to go home and just go back to me.\201d


Nicole Kidman is opening up about the less-than-glamorous side of walking down a Hollywood red carpet.
In a recent interview for Elle's April 2024 Impact issue, the Days of Thunder actress admitted that getting ready for a red carpet event can be "overwhelming" and at times even a "little unreal."
"I want to get out, take my dress off, and put my jammies on," Kidman told the publication at the time. (Celebrities, they're just like us!) "It's kind of like the opposite of Cinderella—I'm happy to go home and just go back to me."
The mom of four went on to say that despite being in the entertainment business for over four decades, preparing to walk down a red carpet can still "feel a little overwhelming."
"I'm like: 'I need to go home now. I'm very tired. I want to get warm, and I want to curl up, and I want to feel real,'" she added.
Nicole Kidman attends the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards in Nashville last November
While Kidman is undeniably a member of Hollywood A-list royalty, the actress told Elle she gets the most fulfillment from the life she lives beyond the camera and outside the entertainment spotlight.
"I have a very full life with people that I love. I’m raising daughters. I’m a wife, I’m a best friend. I’m a sister, I’m an aunt. I have deeply intimate relationships with people," she continued. "And that, to me, is the meaning of life—and then taking care of what we leave behind, who we leave behind and how we do that, and our sense of respect for that."
Kidman married country music star Keith Urban in 2006 and, two years later welcomed the pair's daughter, Sunday Rose, to the world. In 2010 the couple's second daughter, Faith Margaret, was born. Kidman also shares two adopted children with her ex-husband, Tom Cruise.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban attend the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards
In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Kidman said it wasn't until she gave birth to her first daughter while in her 40s that she "found the (entertainment) industry suddenly less hospitable."
"(I decided to) have my baby and sit on a farm. Until my mum said to me: ‘I don’t think you should just give up,'" she told the publication at the time. "I was quite convinced I could grow vegetables and be at home and be very satisfied with that, but was pushed quite substantially by my mum. Friends, too—I have friendships that have permeated my life.
“Those relationships are relevant," she added. "They’re the threads that pull you through, when people show up and go: ‘I know you and I believe in you,’ and push you forward.”
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Danielle Campoamor is Marie Claire's weekend editor covering all things news, celebrity, politics, culture, live events, and more. In addition, she is an award-winning freelance writer and former NBC journalist with over a decade of digital media experience covering mental health, reproductive justice, abortion access, maternal mortality, gun violence, climate change, politics, celebrity news, culture, online trends, wellness, gender-based violence and other feminist issues. You can find her work in The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, TODAY, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, InStyle, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Glamour, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Prism, Newsweek, Slate, HuffPost and more. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and their two feral sons. When she is not writing, editing or doom scrolling she enjoys reading, cooking, debating current events and politics, traveling to Seattle to see her dear friends and losing Pokémon battles against her ruthless offspring. You can find her on X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and all the places.
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