Sun sets on Australia shoot
By Erin McWhirter
December 20, 2007 12:00am
WITH the stench of cows' manure lingering in the air, their faces smeared with dirt and bodies drenched in sweat, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman finally dimmed the lights on Outback epic Australia yesterday after a gruelling nine-month shoot.
Relaxed and glowing, Kidman played out her final scenes as English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley in the $100 million-plus Baz Luhrmann production, as her country crooning husband Keith Urban watched proudly from the wings.
Trembling with emotion the Academy Award winner launched into her final take, letting out a shocking scream, before cradling 11-year-old actor Brandon Walters in her arms.
The pivotal scene, filmed at Sydney's Fox Studios, revolves around Aboriginal youngster Nullah (Walters) being forced to a cliff edge by a herd of stampeding cattle, his life left hanging in the balance.
Kidman, 40, said while she was looking forward to a break over Christmas, the anxiety of the curtain finally falling on the film hit her during a dream on the eve of her final scene.
"Last night I was crying in a dream and I think it was a bit of anxiety about finishing," she admitted.
"I am very ingratiated having done this film. I have wanted to do it since I was 14 and I didn't know what it was, but I knew there was something."
The tall beauty said it was lovely to be able to share the experience with Urban, a regular visitor to the set.
Urban arrived in the country yesterday fresh from two weeks touring Canada, and Kidman said it was great to have him there.
Looking bronzed and in shape in preparation for his role in Wolverine, leading man Jackman, 39, who plays a drover and Kidman's love interest in the World War II piece, will film his final scene today.
"If you could tick any box off a job, this has got every box ticked," he said, adding it felt "surreal" to finish. "Part of me doesn't want to let this go. It's probably the best movie I've ever worked on. It's hard to let go of."
While eating from a plate of broccoli, Jackman said he would have three weeks off before throwing himself into physically demanding sci-fi thriller Wolverine.
"I literally eat every three hours," Jackman said of his preparation.
Set in Australia's northern Outback, the film follows the life of Lady Sarah Ashley, who travels halfway across the world to inherit a massive Northern Territory cattle station.
For more than seven years, Kidman and Luhrmann have brainstormed over the project, with production finally beginning in April.
"Out of those conversations, it was, 'We have to do something for this country', because (of) the landscape here, the essence and nature of being Australia and what that is," Kidman said. "He started his research and here we are."
Cast and crew have trekked across Australia to film in Sydney, Kununurra, Darwin and Bowen.
While Moulin Rouge!, Romeo and Juliet and Strictly Ballroom director Luhrmann promises he will not deliver the world "another half-baked" film epic, he admitted to feeling the pressure for the film to perform when released at Christmas next year.
"The expectations are enormous, the pressure of that (is) not comfortable," he said. "It wouldn't be comfortable going into an Olympics, I wouldn't like to be Ian Thorpe at an Olympic swim because you are up against the best in the world, you represent your country and if it doesn't play the risk is enormous."
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22949908-5013560,00.html#
