The long history of the art form of cinema can be neatly divided into two eras: before Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad and after Nicole Kidman’s AMC ad. The actor has long been a favored subject of gay internet memes, starting with her iconic divorce photos. When the AMC ad dropped in 2021, it only further entrenched Kidman’s status as a modern camp icon.
If you’re unfamiliar, the minute-long spot was part of a campaign to get people back into movie theaters post-lockdown. Both the script and the aesthetic of the video are, to put it lightly, extremely dramatic. Kidman, in a glittery pinstriped power suit, sits alone in a theater as clips of various blockbusters play, telling viewers that “we come to this place for magic.” It ultimately culminates in this iconic line: “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”
Now, she’s leaning into that legacy, having shared that her “dream” is to recreate the ad with a drag queen.
The Expats star shared that dream with Elle, where she was featured on the cover of the magazine’s March issue. Naturally, the accompanying profile opens with Kidman talking about the minute-long spot and its ongoing cultural impact. The queen that she is, Kidman shared that “she felt it was her duty to answer AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron’s call to help get people back into movie seats.”
“It was just the desire to keep cinemas alive,” Kidman told the magazine. “I’ve had the best experiences in cinema. I’d pretend I was going to school; I’d forge a note, and I’d go and sit in a movie theater. That’s a safe haven for me, so the idea of those not existing — that’s just not part of the equation in my lifetime.”
She’s fully embraced the memeification of the video, even telling Elle, “My dream will be to be onstage doing it with a drag queen. I’ve got to be able to do that at some point.” (Nicole, if you or any of your people are reading this, I know of an LGBTQ+ publication that would absolutely love to make this happen.)
The ad was so successful that AMC announced in February that they would be entering “phase 2” of their Kidman-centric preshow campaign, in phrasing that suggests a universe as expansive as the Marvel Cinematic one. While we’ll be waiting on that, we know for sure that there will be three new Kidman ads rolling out in AMC theaters this month. If it weren’t for her dedication to doing “whatever it takes” (as she said in the Elle profile) to save movie theaters, who knows where we as a society would be? For that we say: thank you for your service, Nicole.
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