The amazing Nicole Kidman lands her cover of Interview Magazine's photographers issue with a session from the prolific fashion photographer Steven Klein. Styled by magazine's fashion editor Karl Templer, hair styling courtesy of Garren. Makeup by makeup artist Diane Kendal.
The story itself brought massive discussion – no need to guess – the subject was the story line behind the shoot.
STEVEN KLEIN: Hi, Nicole. The thing is that we both hate talking on the phone.
NICOLE KIDMAN: [laughs] I always said that. I had so much fun on the shoot. It was very inspiring. You create a beautiful sort of limbo world, which is nice to exist in.
KLEIN: I was curious how you felt. If it's like when you've built worlds—like working with Kubrick—constructing reality as opposed to being in reality.
KIDMAN: I like creating a bubble, and that was a bubble. I didn't expect it, so that's always good, too. But it does have a dreamlike quality. The whole thing felt like a dream. And at the end of the day, I went, "Did I do that?"
KLEIN: Oh, that's good.
KIDMAN: [laughs] So, when was the first time you picked up a camera?
KLEIN: Probably when I was 14 years old and a friend of mine gave me a camera. At the time, I was really into making things out of clay. I was digging in the backyard to get my own clay and making pottery. And then I started taking pictures and built my own darkroom. I would go out at six in the morning and just take pictures. There was a mental institution near my house, and I would donate time teaching mentally ill patients how to do ceramics. I photographed them as well. So those were my first pictures.
KIDMAN: That's amazing. And do you view the world through a lens?
KLEIN: Yes. I guess it's a shield as well as my tool. But that's the way I've always seen things and been able to express myself. I didn't do so well in the academic world, so I think the only way I could express myself was through visual art—anything I could get my hands on, whether it was glassblowing, sculpture, painting, or photography. I always wanted to be a painter. Or a farmer.
KIDMAN: A farmer?
KLEIN: I don't know why. That's my earliest memory, wanting to be a farmer. Isolated. I have a farm now, but I'm not an actual farmer.
KIDMAN: Do you like the simplicity of that?
KLEIN: I do. Growing up, that's how I saw myself, living very simply, an artist on a farm creating work. My work is the antithesis of that. And directing—when you have a hundred people around—is the opposite of that.
KIDMAN: Why do you love horses so much?
KLEIN: Oh, that's a very personal story, but I had a huge crush on a girl when I was 13 years old. This older guy—I think he was probably four or five years older than me—wanted to meet her and he had a horse. I lived in the suburban area, and he lived in a farm area. One day he came over to my house with his horse, and I said, "Well, let's go to my girlfriend's house and show her the horse." And so we went over to her house and then he took her for a ride, took her to the lake, and then they never came back.
KIDMAN: [laughs] The seduction of the girl—very powerful.
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