Nicole Kidman Discusses Her Regrets Regarding Stanley Kubrick’s Death

Nicole Kidman and legendary director Stanley Kubrick famously worked together on his final project, the controversial erotic thriller Eye Wide Shut. Unfortunately for the actress, the filmmaker passed away before she could pick up the phone and give him a call. According to the Moulin Rouge! star, the decision not to make contact with Kubrick before his passing is one of her deepest regrets.

WENN reports that Nicole Kidman briefly discussed her relationship with Stanley Kubrick during her appearance at the New York Film Festival. “Tom [Cruise] and I went to his house and had dinner, and I remember I was nervous. [I was] able to sit on the floor of his office … and be privy to so many things. It was like having a great, great teacher,” she explained.

After a notoriously long shoot, Stanley Kubrick’s final cut of Eyes Wide Shut was delivered just four days before the director passed away. Although many thought the introduction of computer-generated imagery to obtain an R-rating from the MPAA was against the filmmaker’s wishes, he had actually discussed such digital trickery should the organization have a problem with the film’s orgy sequence prior to his death.

Since Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were huge fans of Stanley Kubrick, they reportedly signed open-ended contracts for their respective roles in Eyes Wide Shut. In a nutshell, this meant the filmmaker could keep them for however long he needed to complete the film.

According to Contact Music, the actress almost called the director the day before he died. “I remember thinking [he] was frail, and … if I were more intuitive I would have realized that he was not well. One of the worst thing s… was, I was going to call him and I didn’t. Instead I got a phone call [the next day] saying Stanley was dead. It was one of my great regrets that I didn’t call him that night,” she explained.

Nicole Kidman has a number of projects hitting theaters in the coming months. In addition to South Korean director Chan-wook Park’s Stoker, the actress will appear alongside Zac Efron and John Cusack in Lee Daniel’s Paperboy.