She would have starred opposite Hugh Grant in the beloved rom-com
Nicole Kidman could have had a very different career path.
According to the Oscar and Emmy Award-winning actress, she desperately wanted the lead role opposite Hugh Grant in the 90s romantic comedy “Notting Hill” which ultimately went to Julia Roberts.
Kidman, 53, told Grant, 60, while promoting their new HBO series “The Undoing” in an interview with Marie Claire. Kidman also confessed she almost got a role in Grant’s other popular rom-com, “Love Actually.”
“I think there was something where I think I really wanted a role… maybe I was gonna do a small role in ‘Love, Actually’ at one point,” said Kidman. “Yeah. Yes.”
“Were you? Which part?” asked Grant.
Kidman replied, “I can’t remember. It was not a big role. And I really wanted the role that Julia Roberts played in ‘Notting Hill’… Yeah, I did. But I wasn’t well known enough, and I wasn’t talented enough.”
Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant play a married Manhattan couple who are embroiled in a murder mystery in HBO’s ‘The Undoing.’ (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
Ironically, Roberts also didn’t take the role of Anna Scott because she felt it was a little on the nose. The plot followed a famous American actress who falls for a local book shop owner (Grant).
Roberts told Vanity Fair she told her agent to pass on it. She recalled thinking, “How boring. How tedious — what a stupid thing for me to do,” but then figured, “F—, I’m going to do this movie.”
“Notting Hill” ended up making $364 million at the box office.
The “Big Little Lies” actress also spoke about her and Grant’s chemistry on screen in “The Undoing” and how she felt it came naturally.
Julia Roberts (L) and Hugh Grant (R) in a scene from ‘Notting Hill.’ (Photo By Getty Images) (Getty Images)
“Yeah, well, I like you. So that was a really easy part,” Kidman explained. “I remember lying around on that bed when we were shooting in the bedroom, and talking to [director Susanne Bier] and thinking, ‘Huh, this is the good part. I’m gonna miss this.’”
“Because there was something very relaxed, obviously, because I’m Australian and you’re British, we have that similar, I don’t know, it’s just a sense of humor,” she added. “It’s good chemistry.”
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