Why Nicole Kidman just publicly shaded Martin Scorsese

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Nicole Kidman called out Martin Scorsese in her latest interview with Variety.

The 57-year-old Oscar winner shaded the longtime director in one simple sentence while speaking with Variety for their Hollywood Issue, which was published on Wednesday, November 13. When asked about directors she’d like to work with, she quipped, “I’ve always said I want to work with [Martin] Scorsese, if he does a film with women.”

The question came after the interviewer acknowledged the impressive list of directors Kidman has worked with, whom she mentioned in her acceptance speech for the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award she received in April.

Jane Campion, Gus Van Sant, Stephen Daldry, Noah Baumbach, and Lars von Trier were just a few of the big names she recalled working with at the ceremony. The Hours actress later acknowledged other famous directors she failed to mention in her speech — like her Aquaman and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director James Wan — telling L’Officiel magazine, “There are a lot of directors on that list and I left a few off. I left James Wan off, which was devastating to me.”

In her sit-down with Variety, she listed Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Michael Haneke as directors she would like to work with one day.

Kidman kept her comments about Scorsese brief, but the 81-year-old directing legend has been criticized before for his films only focusing on men. Just a few examples of his male-focused films include hits like The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Irishman, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Meryl Streep, Kidman’s co-star from projects like The Hours, The Prom, and Big Little Lies, even called out The Departed director in a 2011 interview with The Talks. When asked the same question as Kidman, regarding directors she’d like to work with, Streep, 75, didn’t mince words. “Yes, I would like Martin Scorsese to be interested in a female character once in a while, but I don’t know if I’ll live that long,” she quipped.

While speaking at an Italian press conference in 2019, Scorsese expressed his frustration over the years of criticism that he doesn’t write films led by female characters.

“That’s not even a valid point,” he said. “That goes back to 1970. That’s a question that I’ve had for so many years. Am I supposed to? If the story doesn’t call for it, then it’s a waste of everybody’s time. If the story calls for a female character lead, why not?”

He gave 1993’s Age of Innocence and 1995’s Casino as examples of films written for female leads, before suggesting that he doesn’t have time to write more female characters.

“But you know what, I’m 76 now. How am I going to have the time? I don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know. I don’t have time anymore,” he shared.

Kidman’s highly-anticipated erotic thriller Babygirl, from director Halina Reijn, will be released in theaters on December 25.