Before finding international success playing a terrorized wife in the Sam Neill vehicle Dead Calm (1989) Nicole Kidman had already established herself as a meritorious actress in Australia. Standing 5'9" and possessing a to-die-for head of thick red hair, Kidman is easily recognizable in films. The daughter of a biochemist/lecturer and a nurse/educator, Kidman was born in Hawaii, but raised in her parents' native Australia where she lived an upper-class lifestyle in which she was well-educated and exposed to much culture, including ballet lessons from age three. Her interest in acting began in childhood and by age 10, Kidman was studying acting in drama school. Later she trained at the St. Martin's Youth Theater in Melbourne and also at both the Australian Theater for Young People and at the Phillip Street Theater in Sydney. When she was 14, Kidman made her film debut starring in Bush Children (1982), after she was spotted playing a middle-aged American in a regional play. Her next film, The BMX Bandits (1983) provided Kidman her first real starring role.

Thus began a steady sequence of filmwork for the willowy redhead that was punctuated by her award-winning work on Australian television that included two Australian Film Institute' Best Actress Awards for the telemovies Vietnam (1988) --Kidman was only 17 when she won it the first time-- and Bangkok Hilton (1989). In 1988 and 89, Kidman was named the Australian public's "Best Actress of the Year." In addition to her filmwork, Kidman was also working in Aussie theater and was awarded the Sydney Theater Critics' "Best Newcomer" award.

Her work in Dead Calm caught the eye of American actor/producer Tom Cruise who starred her opposite himself in Days of Thunder (1990). The year of the film's release Kidman and Cruise married. They next appeared together in Ron Howard's disappointing western epic Far and Away (1992). Still, Kidman has managed to keep up her reputation for delivering high-calibre dramatic performances and continues to be well-respected.