Nicole Kidman is shocked that people are still talking about her viral AMC Theatres commercial.
Kidman reflected on the longevity of the heavily memed ad in a new video interview on Allure’s YouTube channel.
During the segment, she joked, “The AMC commercial. Are we still talking about that?”
However, the actor shared sweet sentiments about the moment that is now cemented into the pop culture zeitgeist, adding, “I’m very, very glad to be able to say that we did that during COVID.”
“The people that did it with me, there was Billy Ray (Oscar-nominated screenwriter) who wrote it, and the cinematographer who directed it, he and his brother,” she explained. “We all just were like ‘Okay, we can do this. Quick, buckle down, we’ll do it in a day and let’s do this because we owe this to our industry and to cinema.’ And that was that.”
Kidman said they had the “purest of intentions” with the commercial, before noting, “It kind of took on a life of its own, thank God.”
“I never thought it would take on this life, but I’m grateful that it did,” she continued. “It was a Michael Kors suit and my stylist Julia von Boehm was just like ‘Here, this is it.’ There was no sort of overthinking of anything. It was just very matter of fact and direct and that was that.”
Even Kidman knows that “heartbreak felt good in a place like this” and said that she’s “still deeply connected” to AMC.
“I pay money, and I go, and I see my commercial in the AMC, but then I always go and see movies,” she said. “I’m a paying member of the public who goes to the movie theaters with huge enthusiasm and I love it.”
Kidman’s AMC ad debuted in September 2021 and took the internet by storm. The ad, which has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube alone, also got the “Saturday Night Live” treatment in October 2022 when Chloe Fineman broke out her Kidman impression for a parody of the commercial that had a sinister twist.
In an email to GQ in March 2022, Kidman expressed that she wasn’t sure “why it worked or why it’s gone viral,” adding, “But what I can tell you is that the reaction is a direct result of the amount of people going back to theaters to enjoy the movies. And that is exciting.”
Her husband, Keith Urban, previously told Criss Angel on his “Talking Junkies” podcast in November 2023 that neither of them expected the viral reaction to the commercial.
“She did it because we love movies, she loves movies, and it was hard times for the theaters,” Urban explained. “So AMC asked her if she’d do an AMC commercial and it was a no-brainer for her to be a part of that. Never in a million years expecting that to be this cultural thing.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
