Nicole Kidman tells Cannes her rebel spirit pushes her to strange films

Jean-Paul Pelissier—Reuters
Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning

CANNES, France — For an A-list star who,
as she says herself, does not have to work, Nicole Kidman has
been pretty busy ahead of Cannes, appearing in three movies and
a TV series screening at the film festival.”I don’t have to work. I work because it’s still my passion,
it’s the way in which I express myself,” she told a news
conference after the screening of “The Killing of a Sacred
Deer,” one of two Kidman movies competing for the Palme d’Or.Kidman — whose other Cannes offerings are science fiction
teenage film “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” an episode of
Jane Campion’s TV series “Top of the Lake” and “The Beguiled” by
Sofia Coppola — said she sought unusual projects.”I want to support people who are trying different things or
have a very, very unique filmmaking style,” she said.That certainly applies to “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” in
which she plays the mother of children mysteriously struck with
paralysis, which director Yorgos Lanthimos says is a comedy, but
plays out much more like a horror film.”I love to be asked to be in those things because that’s
just where I am,” Kidman said. “I have always had that slightly
rebel spirit where I have gone: ‘I don’t want to conform, I want
to find a way not to.’ And that’s just who I am.”