“Eyes Wide Shut” was Stanley Kubrick’s final film, and he died four months before its release. Its stars (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Hollywood’s most famous couple) were sidelined for nearly two years as what was supposed to be a six-month shoot dragged on indefinitely, to the point where Kidman began to seriously wonder: Will this ever end?
It's not that he was in a hurry to leave.
“I would have stayed a third year,” Kidman tells me. “Does that mean I’m crazy?”
The lengthy build-up to the release gave rise to speculation and curiosity about the film, which had been promoted as a “story of jealousy and sexual obsession.” When it was finally released on July 16, 1999, the response was muted, tinged with disappointment. But its reputation and mysteries have deepened over the years. Christopher Nolan calls it “the '2001' of relationship movies.” And he’s not entirely wrong.
The 1999 project
All year long, we'll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of pop culture milestones that transformed the world as we knew it and created the world we live in today. Welcome to The 1999 Project from the Los Angeles Times.
Kidman and I have talked about the film many times over the years. As “Eyes Wide Shut” turns 25, we thought it would be a good time to delve deeper into the discussion.
You once told me that Kubrick discarded a scene from “Eyes Wide Shut” that you had been filming for six weeks. Which scene?
Maybe that was an exaggeration. [Laughs.] It was the scene with Tom and I where I start off smoking a joint in bed and laughing and delivering the long monologue. That took many weeks. A lot of it was rehearsing in the bedroom and then he didn't like what we'd done. So we ended up redoing it, building it up as we went along. There was no need to rush. Stanley never went over budget. What he gained was time.
How did that scene evolve?
Just a lot of conversation. When Tom and I started with Stanley, it was at his house and we didn't even go to the sets at Pinewood. [Studios]Six or eight weeks went by and we were like, “Are we ever going to start?” And we just didn't get started. We were just getting comfortable with each other, comfortable enough to throw out ideas. For that scene, we improvised the beginning during rehearsals.
Did you feel that he was exploiting your own marriage to influence the relationship between Bill and Alice?
I guess he was exploiting it. There were ideas that interested him. He asked a lot of questions, but he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I remember him saying, “Triangles are tricky. You have to be careful when you’re dealing with a triangle.” Because one person could feel attacked in a group, but he was aware of that and he knew how to handle us.
Have you ever felt attacked in a group?
No, but there's also something in that equation that has to do with being a woman. And Stanley liked women. He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more together on his character.
So they're having these conversations, getting to know each other., And he shapes the script. What part of yourself did you bring to Alice?
My boldness. I'm pretty outspoken and Alice gets pretty outspoken, especially when she was high… but I wasn't like that when I was high. I was just like that by nature. Outspoken.
How much experience of being high did you bring to the role?
Yes, I smoked when I was younger, but I definitely wasn't interested in it back then.
I remember reading somewhere that Kubrick told you something like: “Remember, Nicole. The key to this scene is that Alice is on drugs.”
And I probably would have said, “Of course, Stanley. Yes, I understand.”
The great thing about him is that he told us, “Don’t put me on a pedestal.” That’s rule number one. Because when we got to his house, we were like, “Oh my God. The great Stanley Kubrick.” And that kind of thinking hampers the creative process. He didn’t want any sycophants. He told us to pitch ideas. And everyone has to wait at least 10 seconds before saying no to an idea. I heard that, and I’m 20 years old, and I thought, “Okay. It’s done.” It was experimental, like making student films in Australia.
This audacity is evident when Alice dances with the Hungarian boy who tries to seduce her.
“I'm maaaaarto“attacked.” I love it when I point my finger at him. All of that wasn't in the script, it came out of rehearsal.
She utters many words while dancing with him.
I've definitely been drunk on champagne, so I knew how to do it. [Laughs.] And I'm sure I've said “I'm married” to different people at different times, so that's good, too.
Meanwhile, Bill is flirting with the two young models, whom Alice spots. Before that bedroom scene, she takes a joint from a box of band-aids and looks at herself in the vanity mirror. She definitely has the feeling that he's about to start something. She's ready for a confrontation.
Mmm-hmmm. There's some digging to be done. But these were conversations that Stanley and I never had, what you and I are doing now.
Didn't you like to butt into the scenes?
“Why?” was the question that irritated him most. The same thing happens to many directors. I remember asking Philip Roth that question. [author of “The Human Stain,” adapted into a 2003 film starring Kidman] And he said, “Don’t ever ask me that.” Then he gave me a signed copy of the book he had written: “Why not?”
So Kubrick would get what he wanted by simply wearing you out?
I don’t know how he would do it, but I guess that scene was why he chose me. That mischief, that provocative nature, he picked up on that and it got more into Alice. The scene where my dress falls off… that was me. That wasn’t scripted. That was my dress in the closet. “This is how I take off my dress, Stanley.” Because I had a lot of clothes, we weren’t paying to buy clothes. And Stanley had come over and I was showing him all these beautiful dresses. That’s how it happened.
Are you aware of how that monologue works? [Alice telling Bill, “If you men only knew” and then revealing her sexual fantasy about the naval officer] Has it taken on a life of its own? Frank Ocean used the whole thing in “Crimes of love”.
Get out of here! Are you kidding me? I love it. Thanks, Frank Ocean!
When I rewatched the movie recently, I was taking notes and I wrote, “Bill is like…” I think Alice had been holding back a lot and this scene was hers. —
He touches it. Or maybe he opens it.
Well, that revelation devastates him.
But humans are devastating and we never really have access to someone's thoughts. You may know someone or you may not. They are not the things we would like to hear, but they are deeply sincere.
James Joyce has this short story that I had read before, “Eyes Wide Shut,” where something is discovered in 15 seconds that literally destroys the marriage on the spot, even though it was a very good marriage. Because it was based on what they thought each person was. And then it’s like, “You were never the person I thought you were.”
Stanley always said that animals are much more honest than humans. I remember we were watching a programme about wildlife and lions, and the lion came in and attacked ferociously. He was upset by that, but he also said, “Well, at least animals are easier to read. You know what their motives are.”
Did you agree with him?
No! I would say: “That’s not true!” [Laughs.] And he would say, “Nicole. Nicole.” But I like to have a more optimistic view of human beings, something I always try to defend in my youthful enthusiasm.
Do you have the The last word in Stanley Kubrick's last film. [After Alice tells Bill there’s something they “need to do as soon as possible,” he asks, “What’s that?” She answers with one word.]
And it's a pretty good word. [Laughs.] And that also came out of the rehearsal process. When you see it, it's great because it's a basic, primal thing to do. But I'd never thought about that. I have the last line in Stanley Kubrick's last film. Nobody had ever told me that. That's a career in itself. I embrace that.
What do people say to you when they talk about the film?
They want to know what it was like to spend so much time making it, which I understand. It was two years of our lives! [Laughs.] I remember when Sydney Pollack came in he said, “I’m only going to be here for about three days and it seems like we’ve got the vibe going today.” Tom and I looked at each other and said, “Mmm-hmmm. Sure, Sydney.”
Didn't you tell him? Did you think he would find out the truth soon?
No. It was like [brightly]“Welcome!” In the end, we are learning how to make pasta because he is a great cook, Sydney. Stanley would come to our trailer and we would eat. In the little kitchen in our trailer, Sydney would make this amazing artichoke pasta with [Parmigiano-]Reggiano and this amazing olive oil and roast chicken.
We had a house 10 minutes away, but we lived in that trailer. Tom and I shared it because Stanley was like, “You're not going to each have a trailer. We can't afford it.” Tom had a smaller space because he was in charge of things and he played video games. [“Minesweeper”] It was big. So there was a lot of that.
Did you know that for some, watching “Eyes Wide Shut” has become a Christmas movie ritual?
Wow! What a weird Christmas movie! [Laughs.] Well, there are so many layers to all of his films that's why we keep going back to them.
Do you think the finished film was the final version?
Oh, yeah. I'd been editing it for 18 months. It's not that I didn't have enough time. I was very happy with the result. That he showed it to us is a huge thing, if you know Stanley. And the people at Warners were there. I wasn't going to start from scratch again.
Have you seen it again since that initial screening in March in New York, shortly before his death?
I've seen bits and pieces, but I've never seen the whole thing. [Pause.] Maybe I'll see him at Christmas. [Laughs.]
It's not a movie you're going to sit down and watch with your daughters, right?
Definitely not. At the AFI [Life Achievement Award] Tribute, they saw the scene where I got high. They showed it and I was like, “Oooh. Wow. Okay.” I sat next to my daughter, Sunday, and watched it.
Did he say something to you?
She said, “Mom, that was good.” And then they showed that “Birth” scene, which you and I talked about, and she said, “That was good.” In fact “Okay.” And I watched that scene and I thought, “Wow. That was really good.” And I never do that.
You probably haven't seen that in a long time either.
I find it a little strange that people watch their own films. I don't mind celebrating directors because it's their job. But my little part of it is like… [groans]But if you're a director, it's wonderful to know that you're proud of it. So I'm very, very proud of it. I'm saying that to you, Stanley, up there, if you're listening. He knows it anyway.
