Nicole Kidman & Aaron Eckhart Talk Rabbit Hole

Based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole marks a major comeback for it’s star, Nicole Kidman, after the visually-splendid big-budget bombs “Nine,” “Australia,” and “The Golden Compass,” which contributed to the untimely demise of it’s distributor, New Line Cinema.

In fact, since “Moulin Rouge!” made her a bona fide star in 2001, Kidman’s Hollywood dalliances have been disappointing, to say the least. Remember “The Stepford Wives?” “Bewitched?” “The Invasion?” Didn’t think so. Of course, some of the blame may fall on Kidman’s impossibly rigid countenance, besieged by a bevy of Botox. New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis described Kidman’s evil sorceress character in the aforementioned “Golden Compass” as “a goddess of icy perfection” who looks “exotically alien” with her “alabaster skin” and “for once, the smooth planes of her face, untroubled by visible lines, serve the character.”

Well, as Vulture pointed out, Kidman’s forehead lines are back, and better than ever in RABBIT HOLE.

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”), and adapted for the screen by the play’s writer, David Lindsay-Abaire, “Rabbit Hole” centers on a married couple – Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) – whose life is turned upside down when their young son is killed in a car accident. The couple chooses different paths of grief, with Becca striking up a flirtation with a troubled young comic-book artist, Jason (Miles Teller), the driver of the car that killed Danny, and Howie losing himself in his past. Dianne Wiest also stars as Becca’s mother. Time called Kidman’s powerful performance her “career-best,” and the turn garnered her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. Thankfully, the role takes Kidman back to the edgier, challenging territory she explored in films like “Birth,” “Dogville,” and “Margot at the Wedding.”

MMM attended the New York press conference with “Rabbit Hole” stars Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, as they chatted about how they prepared for the role, their own experiences dealing with grief, and playing house.

MANHATTAN MOVIE MAGAZINE: Nicole, this Project probably wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for your involvement. Can you talk about what struck you about this story, made you option it, and get it going as film?

NICOLE KIDMAN: I think just I immediately connected with the subject matter, obviously. It was interesting to me from the review and then when I actually read the play the character, the whole story I thought was so available. I could just immediately just jump in and feel. We were saying, John [Cameron Mitchell] and I did an interview yesterday, that this whole film, we didn’t approach it from an analytical point of view. We did it from a sort of visceral place and that’s sort of what it’s been.

MMM: This is a lot about the process of grief and dealing with grief, and I thought you guys could talk about what you learned about that process and maybe if there were any experiences that you had that you were able to connect this to that made it easier for you as actors or in terms of translating it as a director, how you dealt with the process of grief and analyzing the experience of dealing with coming out of it.

AARON ECKHART: I’ve never had any serious loss in my life yet, so I just had to empathize and just did research. It’s all in the script really, the script is so beautifully written, and just hanging on to Nicole that takes you through it.

KIDMAN: I think for me, it’s something that I’ve always wanted to explore. I’ve explored it in other films in different ways. I explored it in a film called ‘Birth’ which was in a whole different way. So I feel like it’s territory that I would even explore again because it’s so much a part of our journey; what we love, what we lose, the fear of that. And those emotions are so palpable and so powerful that I’m just drawn to exploring them and expressing them. But I think that with this film it’s very much about a family as well and it’s about how a family works through it together, about how you can help people and how in some ways, you’re just so isolated. I think that’s what Howie and Becca are, completely isolated, and yet they are reaching out and they don’t know how to connect. I find that so touching and it was something that was beautifully, beautifully rendered in the screenplay. It’s a very difficult place to exist in, but also the words came easily and the emotions. Actually, a lot of it was how to keep them in because they were available I think to all of us and all the actors in the film. A lot of it is restraint because as actors those areas are mined quite a lot.

MMM: Nicole, did you attend any counseling situations with Aaron?

KIDMAN: We both had different experiences. I tried to and I was told, ‘Unless you’ve actually lost a child or a loved one you’re not to come into the room.’ I completely respected that because they said, ‘It’s just too raw and it’s too dangerous and it’s a very sacred place and we can’t let you in to observe.’ I’m glad that they didn’t now, when I look back because the way that the emotions came to me in the character were through just my own, the way that I vibrate and the rawness of loving my children. I was able to leap there very quickly. I was amazed at how deep that well is and how available it is. It’s probably as David [Lindsay-Abaire] said, that he wrote about this thing that terrifies him the most and as an actor I played the thing that terrifies me the most. Aaron has a different story.

ECKHART: I did attend one of those, it was a grief-counseling group like we had in the film, and like Nicole said, it was raw. People had just lost their child the day before, two days, three days, a week before, and there was a lot of emotion in it. I gave my story in the character and all that stuff, which was interesting. I only went once and that was it; I didn’t feel like I needed to go back. I thought it was a little unethical and somehow duplicitous.

MMM: Can you talk about how being a parent helped you play this role?

KIDMAN: I mean it’s one of those that for me I could go right back into the place that we existed in so quickly. So that it means that the strengths of that love, I mean it’s profound. I think from the minute that you have a child or the minute that I’ve experienced taking care of a child, being the caretaker of a little one, the power of that and the responsibility of that and so therefore the fear of the loss of that child is extraordinary. I still can’t even watch some of the scenes because they affect me so deeply and I’ve never had that with a film. I’ve seen this film because I’m a producer a number of times. I probably won’t see the film again, if that makes any sense. I watch two scenes and I’m like, ‘Ugghhh,’ because it still affects me so deeply. So I think that’s the power of parenting and playing this role.

MMM: How did you end up picking John Cameron Mitchell to direct the movie? Since you’re the producer I’m sure you had a lot of input.

KIDMAN: Yeah, and I just think that I work by my gut and Per Saari, he and I optioned the material and we worked on the script with David, when we heard that John had worked on the script we were like, ‘Wow,’ that he was really interested in it I thought, ‘How unusual because of what he’d done and that he was interested in it.’ That’s what piqued my interest. Then I spoke to him on the phone and I just really liked him. I mean, it’s that quick. We shared things, but we didn’t have any extremely deep conversation. I just liked him and I’ve made most of my career decisions based on very quick, spontaneous things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And I like bold directors. I like directors that go against the norm in a way, and I thought mixed with this material and his heart, which he has a big heart, was a good combo.

MMM: How was it you were able to build that sort of relationship where you’re two people fractured by a very traumatic event and kind of walking on eggshells around each other?

ECKHART: Again, I’d have to go back to the writer first of all, and the director. John created an atmosphere of trust on the set, first of all. I think Nicole said it really is the restraint of having feelings and not being able to say them or knowing how you say them or doubting any relationship you’ve had, questioning your love, questioning god, questioning life, doubting yourself, hearing everything you’re saying as if it’s being said by somebody else; that kind of stuff. Not being able to touch a partner that you’ve been best friends with for 20 years or 10 years, 15 years. So all five senses then have to be revisited and reintroduced into your life, and I think for me in terms or approaching this role was how do I touch my wife? How do I talk to her? How do we survive this? It was all in the script really; you didn’t really have to go any further than that. It was only just really playing it. And then John, having gone through this before and being such a good actor himself and being very sensitive to this sort of stuff really guided us and shepherded us through this. He would whisper in our ears adjustments and that sort of thing. And then for me watching the other actors and watching Nicole approach her craft as an actor was extraordinary. The attention to detail, the adjustments that she would make were insane and very challenging and very true. So it was pretty easy.

MMM: Do you feel that your character is wishing for her husband to have an emotional outburst even more than she wanted to be going to Counseling and talking about the tragedy?

KIDMAN: That I needed to have an emotional outburst? He did? No. I mean it’s eight months down the road. This is something that answers the other question about how we prepared to play the role — we rehearsed. We talked. Part of the preparation that I do as an actor is that I create from birth through now, which is sort of like my homework, of where we met, how we got married, all of those things, what happened to my father, because you never see my father, just all the details of the performance. Then you come to the rehearsal period and then you do scenes and then you sort of slowly layer the performance. So, no, I don’t think it’s an emotional outburst. I’m not saying that didn’t happen in the period of eight months prior that you don’t see. That’s what I find very beautiful about this film, that this is not about five days after. This isn’t the day of the loss. This is eight months. This is life. This is how do you stay alive, how do you choose life when you feel like everything to live for has been taken away. How do you then live? That’s the subtlety of the film. How do you live with someone that you used to have moments of great joy with and a normal life with when suddenly you’ve been completely destroyed? That’s why I wanted to make the film; because there are so many people in the world existing in those places. I’ve certainly been in a place of extreme depression and pain where choosing life everyday is a choice, if that makes sense.

MMM: When you’re shooting such dark material what’s the atmosphere off camera? Is there joking or are you trying to maintain that level of emotion at all times?

KIDMAN: Well, with someone like Miles [Teller] I purposely didn’t have any conversations. I didn’t want to rehearse the scenes. John and I talked about it and you sort of want to keep the tension and the way in which we were relating which was through some nervousness and those things. That’s good for the performance, and I think that I probably stay a little bit in character for the whole film. I’m kind of half aware and half not aware. For this sort of film it’s not like you have to be called by the name of the character, but certainly something, there’s the presence of the character at all times. Aaron and I would talk, but a lot of our conversations were about our lives. That was good because there was an intimacy to the conversations that I probably wouldn’t have had with him if we weren’t in a deeply intimate film together. That’ll always remain secret. We had a lot of interns and stuff on the film, which is nice because you have people that just absolutely want to be around that are new to filmmaking and so they have an enormous amount of enthusiasm and energy and curiosity. That’s a good energy.

ECKHART: We also lived in a little neighborhood, a beautiful bay. We took walks around. Nicole one time was in her pajamas walking around the neighborhood.

KIDMAN: [laughs] Not my pajamas. My Ugg boots. And the other thing is that when you have the writer on the set you can be very nervous because the idea of not pleasing him holds…it’s like, ‘David is here!’ But he was so supportive and encouraging and he came to some initial rehearsals as well. I’m always asking questions of the writer. I just love it because they have the key. They usually have the key.

MMM: I think you did an extraordinary thing here especially considering that you had the toughest job?

KIDMAN: I don’t know if it was the toughest job, but in terms of, she’s in so much pain and so unable to let it out and trying desperately to move on and cannot move on. So that’s why she lashes out at herself and then hurts other people and then there’s regret. I mean it’s so complicated, each little [aspect] and that’s why I wanted to make it a really sort of detailed performance. So, I hope that it makes people feel not so alone. That’s the point of it.

RABBIT HOLE is now playing in select theaters.