Nicole Kidman Shares the Reason Why Walking a Red Carpet Makes Her Feel Like the “Opposite of Cinderella”

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.

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.

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.”