Nicole Kidman Wouldn’t Say The N-Word For Director Lee Daniels

Nicole Kidman was reportedly so uncomfortable dropping the N-word on the set of director Lee Daniel’s Paperboy that she refused to utter the term, according to the Los Angeles Times. Despite the insistence from the Precious filmmaker to direct the slur towards one of her African-American co-stars, Kidman ultimately decided that Daniel’s request would have to be denied.

“I didn’t feel like it was right for the character,” Kidman explained during a recent press conference at the New York Film Festival. “I have a son who’s African American and I just didn’t feel it was right. It wasn’t right.”

Although Lee Daniels took his disappointment with Nicole Kidman’s refusal to utter the N-work to the movie’s producers, he was eventually asked to cut the actress some slack. Since Kidman had already agreed to a scene where she urinates all over Zac Efron, asking her to do something she was clearly uncomfortable with was, perhaps, taking things a bit too far.

During an interview with GQ magazine, Lee Daniels explained just how difficult it was to film the controversial golden shower sequence. “First of all, it was really hard to shoot. It was the third day. The first scene we shot was the sex scene with John [Cusack and Kidman]. I like to get that right out of the way. The second day was the telepathic sex scene in the prison. And the third day of shooting was the piss scene.”

For those who haven’t been following the development of Lee Daniel’s next project, here’s the official synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:

” ‘The Paperboy’ takes audiences deep into the backwaters of steamy 1960s South Florida, as investigative reporter Ward Jansen and his partner Yardley Acheman chase a sensational, career-making story. With the help of Ward’s younger brother Jack and sultry death-row groupie Charlotte Bless, the pair tries to prove violent swamp-dweller Hillary Van Wetter was framed for the murder of a corrupt local sheriff.”

The Paperboy — which also stars Scott Glenn, Matthew McConaughey, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray — hits a few select theaters in the US on October 5. The trailer for Lee Daniel’s film has been embedded below.