At a press conference held during the 2012 New York Film Festival, Nicole Kidman explained why she refused to use a racial slur for Lee Daniels’ movie The Paperboy. Kidman stated that her character should not use such language in the film.
The director tried to get Nicole to say the racial slur in the movie about her son. According to him, she needed to use the phrase about the Black actor’s character played by David Oyelowo.
“I asked her to use the ‘N’ word. I could feel the racial tension there in the town. She said, ‘I won’t do it, Lee Daniels revealed at the press conference.
However, the producer reminded the director of everything the star had done and asked him to be more flexible with the performer. He could forgive her, so Daniels gave up on the idea. He even cut out this line from the script.
Kidman looked a little upset when the topic came up at the festival, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Paperboy, inspired by Pete Dexter’s 1995 novel, is set in Florida in the seventies. A journalist investigates a murder in a town full of racial and class tensions. Nicole Kidman plays the lead alongside Zac Efron, John Cusack, and Matthew McConaughey, who plays a death-row inmate engaged to the condemned convict. In the film, there is a scene in which she urinates on her co-star because of the jellyfish bite, writes The Huffington Post.
Usually, Nicole follows the director’s ideas rather than trying to convince him of something. However, when it comes to using racial slurs, she refuses firmly. As noted above, the director, an African American himself, is known for pushing actors beyond their limits. This way, they reveal the truth of the scenes, as the actor explained.
Though The Paperboy received mixed reviews, the movie was moderately successful at the box office after its Cannes premiere. The star was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for the role.
Despite the time that has passed, Kidman stands by her refusal and emphasizes that her longtime acting coach, who is African American, approved of her behavior.
