It appears Nicole Kidman put her foot down and would not let her tongue fly loosely in her role as Charlotte Bess in The Paperboy where she stars with Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron. The whole movie is staged around the investigation of a death row inmate, but the one thing that Nicole “would die” before doing is use the N-word for her character.
According to US Magazine, Nicole Kidman refused to use the derogatory term because she immediately thought about her son who is African American, and simply refused to say it on set for her role. She felt it unnecessary, and in her words via US Magazine:
“I just didn’t feel it was right for the character,” the actress explained of why she wouldn’t say the word. “I have a son [Connor Cruise] who is African American. I just didn’t feel like it was right. What I try to do as an actor is fulfill a directors vision. I have opinions, but at the same time I’m not there to stop him from anything. I’ve really tried to do that in every film. I never want to pull them off their vision.”
Did she make the right call? Yes, she did? Though many people don’t understand why some use it and some don’t, that’s a whole debate which isn’t even debatable because of the common sense factor. What I can say about Nicole Kidman’s individual situation is this, with her being of another race than her son and the complexity of the situation in the future, she made the right call – placing love and someone else’s perspective (her son’s) over her role in the movie. I think she chose well and applaud her.
Good looking out.
