Acclaimed actress Nicole Kidman is hitting back at all the critics who shamed her for her outfit choice when she posed for the cover of Vanity Fair in February 2022.
The cover went viral last year after Kidman was seen wearing a denim micro-mini skirt and matching bra by Miu Miu. With long knee socks and pointed loafers, the 56-year-old actress resembled something like a schoolgirl.
At the time, Kidman had also received numerous comments on the topic of ageism and societal beauty standards, with some fans alleging that Vanity Fair had gone overboard in photoshopping her body.
Now in an interview with Stellar magazine, Kidman has opened up about the choice behind the controversial outfit.
“I make the most random, crazy choices,” the Being the Richardos star said.
“I call them ‘teenage choices’ because I just don’t ever think of consequences.
“Part of my brain just doesn’t think like that. I just go, ‘Oh, I’m going to wear that; it reminds me of my school uniform.’ Or, ‘Oh my God, yeah, I’d love to do that,’
” I try to [stay] in that place because I think otherwise you get scared or worried.”
According to Kidman, she was originally styled to wear a different outfit, but when she saw the Mui Mui set, she asked the stylist if it was an option.
“I showed up and they had another outfit for me and I was like, ‘No, no, I like this one! Am I allowed to wear that?’,” she said.
“And [the stylist] Katie Grand, who’s just fantastic, was on Zoom, and Katie was like ‘You’re willing to wear that?!’ And I said, ‘Wear it?! I’m begging you to wear it!'”
When mentioned that the shoot sparked online backlash, Kidman simply doesn’t want to hear any of it.
“Don’t tell me, I don’t really want to know — it will stop me doing what I want to do. There are times when you hear things and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s really hurtful,'” she said.
“Because you can’t be under a rock. But at the same time, I really try to stay free in the choices because otherwise, before you know it, you’re just closed off and you can’t step anywhere.
“I want for myself just to keep going, ‘Oh, well, I’m trying something or I wanted to do it. It was fun. That was my choice. And yeah, I own it. I’m accountable. Whatever. I take responsibility. Nobody else chose it.'”
And she certainly didn’t let any of the criticism hold her back, because just 6 months after her Vanity Fair shoot the internet was once again losing their minds over her cover shoot with Perfect magazine.
At the time the magazine ran a theme called the Perfect Celebration, which celebrated “the most outstanding figures in popular culture, across fashion, TV, music, art, politics and design” and had Kidman crowned as “the Perfect icon”.