25 November 2015
Newsdesk
Nicole Kidman is donating her pay from her recent West End run to charity in memory of her late father.
The Hollywood actress won rave reviews and a Best Actress prize at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her role as scientist Rosalind Franklin in new play Photograph 51.
The curtain came down on the production on Saturday (21Nov15) after a two-month run, and Nicole has now revealed she is handing her earnings to good causes, splitting the money between an actors' charity and public research university King's College London, where Franklin worked.
"I am donating all of my earnings from the play - just because it has been such a great thing, I love London and I love actors - to the Actors' Benevolent Fund, and in my dad's name to King's College, in honour of him and Rosalind," she tells the London Evening Standard.
"I feel I have celebrated his life and his purpose of life, and also felt close to him in a strange way, standing up on that stage."
Nicole's biochemist father Dr. Antony Kidman knew about Franklin's work in the field of DNA and was eager for the actress to take on the project before he died in September, 2014.
She previously admitted she signed up for the play to honour his memory, telling Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "My dad was a biochemist and he knew all about Rosalind Franklin... When I told him I was thinking about doing it, he was very excited. Then my dad passed away last September. I went, 'All right, I need to do this for my father'."
During the interview with the London Evening Standard, Nicole also gushed about winning the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at Sunday's (22Nov15) ceremony and insisted she hopes the run raises the profile of Photograph 51 playwright Anna Ziegler.
"I love being able to support new plays and playwrights, especially if it's a female," she adds. "I notice there are more plays by women playwrights being produced in London right now - far more so than Broadway - and I love that Anna suddenly has some doors open for her."
Nicole also admits her two young daughters with singer Keith Urban were excited about spending time in London during the run, but they both fell asleep when they attended the show. The actress was also upset that she was not able to bring her two cats to the U.K. with her.
"From my daughters it was like 'Yay, London, Winter Wonderland!', although there was also discussion of bringing our two cats over, which didn't eventually happen..." she says. "My husband, I think, has made 15 trips over four months. That's commitment. I owe him a big thank-you... (The girls came to the show) and fell asleep, I have to say."
