Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman has opened up about her experience working with the late director Stanley Kubrick on the 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut, revealing the intense and intimate process of creating the psychological drama.

In a recent interview, Kidman, 57, spoke about the unique dynamic between her, her then-husband Tom Cruise, 62, and Kubrick, describing how the director would “mine” their marriage for material to inform their performances.

The film, which premiered in 1999 and grossed $162 million at the box office, was notable for its lengthy shooting schedule, with production spanning over 400 days. Kubrick, known for his perfectionism, would often push the actors to deliver multiple takes of a single scene.

Kidman recalled how Kubrick would ask probing questions about her marriage to Cruise, using their relationship as a basis for shaping their characters’ performances. “There were ideas he was interested in. He’d ask a lot of questions,” she said.

Nicole Kidman rarely speaks about her time being married to Tom Cruise, but she made a rare departure recently while speaking about their work on Stanley Kubrick’s classic film Eyes Wide Shut; pictured June 13 in LA

The 57-year-old Oscar winner — who was married to Cruise, 62, from 1990 to 2001 — detailed the relationship the married costars had with Kubrick while filming the dark drama in an interview with the Los Angeles Times; still from Eyes Wide Shut

Kidman also revealed that Kubrick was mindful of the power dynamics between her and Cruise, ensuring that neither felt “ganged up on” during the filming process. “He had a different relationship with Tom. They worked more closely together on his character,” she explained.

The actress added that she brought her own “boldness” to her character, although she clarified that a scene in which her character gets high was closer to her natural manner and not necessarily related to drugs.

Kidman recalled the intense rehearsal process, which involved weeks of improvisation with Cruise at Kubrick’s home before filming even started. “Six, eight weeks passed, and we’re wondering, ‘Are we ever going to start?’ And we just wouldn’t start,” she said.

To make the film’s extraordinary shooting schedule more affordable, Kidman and Cruise had to make sacrifices, including sharing a trailer on set. “We had a home 10 minutes away, but we lived in that trailer,” she recalled. “Tom and I shared it because Stanley would say, ‘You’re not each getting a trailer. We can’t afford it.'”

In the end, the film’s notorious perfectionism paid off, with Eyes Wide Shut becoming a critical and commercial success. The film’s themes of marriage, desire, and the complexities of human relationships continue to fascinate audiences to this day.