Meryl Streep, who is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors in Hollywood, recently took the stage to bestow the prestigious AFI Life Achievement Award to actor Nicole Kidman at a star-filled gala held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, USA. Before inviting Kidman on stage to get the 49th AFI Life Achievement award on Saturday, Streep heaped praises on Kidman, with whom she has worked on films like The Hours (2002), Little Door Gods (2015) and The Prom (2020). They also worked on two seasons of HBO drama Big Little Lies in 2017 and 2019.
Praising Kidman, Streep said, “Your list of credits and roles and good deeds in the world would take a normal person three lifetimes to achieve. Your life and your resume challenge everything we know about how many hours there are in the day and how many places a woman can be at one time. It’s hard not to envy Nicole, but it’s also impossible not to be in awe of her.”
Streep recalled a moment when she was blown away by Kidman’s acting skills in Big Little Lies that required Kidman to emotionally scream. The multiple Oscar-winning veteran said, “I haven’t recovered from that first day, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. For me, it was traumatising because I thought this woman was a Valkyrie.”
In her acceptance speech Kidman gushed over Streep and said, “Meryl Streep, I just love you. I don’t know what it is but you’re a beacon of excellence and warmth and generosity but you’ve been my guiding light, so to receive this from you, you have no idea. My husband will attest, my parents will attest, it’s always been you.”
Kidman also thanked all the directors that she has worked with in her over 35-year-long career as she named them one by one. She expressed her gratitude to her audience and thanked them for sticking by her side even when she did “many little weird films”. The 56-year-old actor also gave a shout-out to her husband and two daughters and mentioned that the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony was the first time when her daughters joined her on the red carpet. She ended her speech by asserting her commitment to working with “young directors and voices that are completely original and need to be heard.”
Kidman is the first Australian actor to win the AFI Life Achievement Award. The former winners of the award are Tom Hanks, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Meryl Streep and more.
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