Nicole Kidman’s experience making 2003’s Dogville got a little too real at one point.
The Oscar winner looked back at some of her iconic roles in a new video for British GQ as she graces the cover of the magazine’s Men of the Year 2024 special issue.
While reflecting on her performance as Grace Margaret Mulligan in writer-director Lars von Trier’s Dogville, Kidman recalled how the iron collar she had to wear caused alarm.
“Lars was Lars, and I was, like, terrified of him and drawn to him,” Kidman, 57, said of the provocative director with a smile, adding of the experience, “It was bizarre.”
She continued, “There’s the moment when they put this dog collar on me that was sort of a metal collar. And then we were filming and, I mean, it was so heavy and hard to get off.”
“I remember it being on and going,” said Kidman in the video, as she simulated herself struggling to breathe, putting her hand to her neck. “And Lars thought I’m acting. And actually I’m like….”
“So then when he cut,” she said, “I’m like, ‘Get it off! Get it off me!’ I’ll never forget that.”
Kidman said she originally signed up for the experimental, minimalist project because she “desperately wanted to work with” von Trier, famous for films like Antichrist and Melancholia.
“We talked on the phone. I read Dogville; everyone was like, ‘What the hell?’ And he sent me kind of these photos of what it was gonna look like, and it was just the tape on the floor. I was like, ‘I love this. Perfect.’ Everyone else was like…,” she recalled of skepticism about the movie’s design.
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Dogville‘s cast also included Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Chloë Sevigny and Stellan Skarsgård.
Kidman said in the British GQ video that it was “amazing” that the cast all “were living in the guest house, with Lars” during production. She also referred to her experience making the film as “kind of dangerous and weird as well, at the same time.”
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Kidman shared which iconic directors she still hopes to work with some day.
“I’ve always said I want to work with [Martin] Scorsese, if he does a film with women,” she said. “I’d love to work with Kathryn Bigelow. I’d love to work with Spike Jonze. I’d love to work with PTA [Paul Thomas Anderson]. I’ve always wanted to work with Michael Haneke. And there’s a whole slew of new up-and-coming directors — there’s so many, and I’m always open to the discovery of new people.”
Dogville is currently streaming on Mubi. Kidman’s next film Babygirl is in theaters Dec. 25.
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