Academy Award-winning actress Nicole Kidman opens up about her role as Sue Brierley who adopts an Indian boy played by Dev Patel in her new movie, Lion. 

INDULGE: How did you come across this project?

NICOLE KIDMAN: Garth (Director) and the Casting Director met with me in New York and told me the story and gave me the book.  I thought – wow, this is true?  And when I read the script, I was really moved.  It’s one of those things that you start reading and you just can’t put it down.  And I loved, obviously, that the woman was Australian, because I don’t get to play Australians that often!

INDULGE: Can you elaborate on what attracted you to the role of Sue?

NICOLE KIDMAN: The emotion and the story.  And Garth.  I knew about him because he directed some of Top of the Lake (Sundance TV) and Jane Campion (Creator of Top of the Lake) is a really good friend of mine and she said how talented he was.  The strength of the script with him was the first pull and then the idea of shooting in Tasmania, which I loved. And then I met with Sue herself and I thought she was really special.  She’s got such a unique way of looking at and existing in the world, and I was very honored to be asked to play her.

INDULGE:  How did you approach your character?

NICOLE KIDMAN: She’s obviously very integral to the story. I just wanted to absorb her.  She’s a red-headed Australian! We’re few and far between.

INDULGE: What was it like working with Director, Garth Davis, about whom you’d heard such great things?

NICOLE KIDMAN: Being in the hands of someone like Garth and that crew, you know you’re in good hands.  He’d worked a lot with them and had a very particular take on what the film was about, what he wanted to say in terms of putting this into the world.  He’s very connected to his own spirit.  I think you feel that humanity.  He has a huge compassion and you feel that when you’re working with him as an actor.  And a compassion for children and his ability to direct those children, who were not actors obviously.  He got spectacular performances from them.

INDULGE: What’s your personal take on the film?

NICOLE KIDMAN: I would say ultimately the film is about the power of mothers, whether they are biological or adopted, and the need for a mother in the way in which we can all mother different people at different times.

INDULGE: What was it like working with Dev Patel?

NICOLE KIDMAN: He’s just lovely. He’s my son, so I took on a very maternal kind of force with him.  But it was nice that he was so little at the beginning and then he grows into such a big man!

LION (The Weinstein Company) staring Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara is currently playing in theaters. Check show times here.