Nicole Kidman tells Lee Daniels about her return to the stage, doing ‘Empire’ cameo

Nicole Kidman has something new to talk about, but it’s not a movie. The acclaimed Australian actress is back on the stage for the first time in nearly two decades with Photograph 51 and it’s a job that actually has her a bit terrified.

In a new interview with her The Paperboy director Lee Daniels for Interview Magazine, Kidman, 48, discussed her craft and the West End production. In Photograph 51, Kidman plays Rosalind Franklin, a chemist whose work on DNA wasn’t recognized until after her death in 1958.

Kidman, who has done just about everything on film, said that the play has terrified her, but it’s also an exhilarating role. It’s her first time on the London stage since 1998.

“Well, I'm over here on this play and I'm terrified-terrified and exhilarated because I've got to make this incredibly acerbic, prickly woman real and vulnerable,” Kidman told Daniels. “You've got to feel her motivation. You've got to understand her. I've got to make that work. And there's no interval. It's a 95-minute play. And I haven't done that for 17 years. It's a whole different ballgame.”

Kidman also discussed the art of acting, and noted how personal experiences are often part of her performances, bringing up her Oscar-winning performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours as an example.

“Yeah, but we're taught to bring everything—the state of being, the environment—and use it,” Kidman explained. “If it's raining, or the other actor doesn't know his lines, everything has to be used. So your own emotional state comes into play, and I certainly remember that happening a lot on, say, The Hours, when I was going through an enormous amount of turmoil. And even though it was appropriate at times for the character [Virginia Woolf], at other times it wasn't.”

Daniels also said that he hoped to get Kidman to make a cameo on Empire, but Photograph 51 has prevented her from doing so. Earlier in the interview, Kidman said that Daniels promised her that she would get a chance to be on the show. But she doesn’t want it to be just a walk-on role.

“I can't pop in and pop out. I wouldn't get there emotionally,” she said.

Kidman’s next big movie release is Secret In Their Eyes with Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It opens on Nov. 20.