Tom Cruise ‘suggested’ Nicole Kidman for X-Rated thriller in rare comment on their marriage

Tom Cruise has made a rare comment about ex-wife Nicole Kidman and their marriage in a new interview.

Cruise, who is currently on the press tour for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, spoke about Kidman when discussing how he actually suggested her for the role in an X-Rated thriller the pair starred in together.

Cruise and Kidman, both world-famous actors in their own right, were married between 1990 and 2001, with Cruise filing for divorce. The pair share two children, Bella and Connor Cruise.

The Mission Impossible actor spoke about Kidman in an interview with the British Film Institute’s (BFI) Sight and Sound magazine.

Cruise said that he had recommended her for her role in Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick’s final film.

The pair starred in the film together, and were married at the time (Warner Brothers)

The movie, which was released in 1999, saw both Cruise and Kidman sign open-ended contracts with Kubrick, essentially agreeing to work on the film until he was done.

It followed the pair as a married couple, where Cruise’s character, Bill, is shocked when he finds out that Kidman’s, Alice, had contemplated having an affair.

This eventually leads him to infiltrate a masked orgy, contemplates cheating on his wife, and several more bizarre shenanigans take place.

The actor spoke about this film with Sight and Sound Magazine, saying: “I flew out to [Stanley Kubrick’s] house and I landed in his backyard.

“I read the script the day before and we spent the day taking about it. I knew all of his films.

“Then it was basically he and I getting to know each other. And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole [Kidman] play the role [of Alice]. Because obviously she’s a great actress.”

Kubrick tragically died just four months before the release of the film.

A controversial piece of work, it took 400 days to shoot, and is the Guinness World Record holder for the longest continuous shoot.

Speaking about this, Cruise said: “I knew it was going to be a long shoot. He was like, ‘No, no, no. We’ll finish in three or four months.’

“I said, 'Stanley, look, I’m here for you. Whatever it’s going to take we’re going to do this'. I thought [Eyes Wide Shut] was very interesting, and I wanted to have that experience.

The pair divorced in 2001 (Terry McGinnis via Getty Images)

“When I go to make a movie, I do a lot of detailed investigation and a lot of time with the people before I commit so that I understand what they need and want and they understand me and how we can work together and really create something very special.”

As the pair were both married at the time of filming, Kidman has in the past admitted that it influenced the film.

She said in 2024 in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “I suppose he was mining it. There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions.

"But he had a strong sense of the story he was telling. I do remember him saying, ‘Triangles are hard. You have to tread carefully when it’s a triangle’.”