IT’S FOR SCREEN AND COUNTRY

There’s something undeniably screen-goddess-ish about Nicole Kidman, perfectly assembled and surprisingly tall as she strides into a suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. After a camera crew shuts off its bright lights, the remaining dim table lamps giving her a warm, glamour-shot glow, she relaxes on the couch and confesses her passions.

“I’m very committed to working for women now,” she says of her occupations outside work and family. “I’m aligned with UNIFEM, which is the [United Nations] organization for the development of women. That’s probably where I’m going to focus a lot of my attention over the next couple of decades. I was raised by a feminist mother and it feels like the right place to be putting my time and energy now. I think you reach a stage in your life when you go, ‘What else can I do?’ There are different ways that we can all go and do our bit, whether we’re a celebrity or whatever our skill is.”

Kidman is in town promoting “Australia,” her third collaboration with Baz Luhrmann (after “Moulin Rouge” and a Chanel No. 5 ad). It’s a World War II-era romantic epic that gave the actress, who was born in Honolulu and moved to Sydney as a child, a chance to celebrate the country she grew up in.

“My relationship with Australia is one of enormous gratitude for molding me, and love. A really, really strong love for what I knew as a child,” says the 41-year-old Oscar winner. “And wanting to capture those sensations -- going out to the bush, riding horses, walking barefoot through the sand out there, the extreme heat and the sun and the flies and the swimming in water holes and all of those things that made me the nature child that I am -- I really, really wanted to bring that to the screen.”

But, clearly, the main draw was working with good friend Luhrmann again: “Every aspect of the film, he’s involved with. It’s his baby. His passion to do great work is so apparent and incredibly infectious, it ignites other people’s passions as well. So whether you’re working on the crew, in the makeup department or whatever department, you’re so committed to a Baz Luhrmann film -- you’d walk over hot coals.

“And whatever we’d do, Baz would do. They were worried about us in the swimming holes because of crocs; Baz would get in there and swim first. Gotta love that.”

Luhrmann had been bandying about the idea for “Australia” for years, always with Kidman in mind. But when it came time to make the film, he had to be sure he wasn’t envisioning her in the role just because he wanted to work with her again.

“When I went through my own process, my initial instinct was unshakable,” he says by phone from Sydney. “To have a character that is comic one instant, romantic the next, who is transformed by action and ultimately delivers a drama, you don’t need the girl next door. You need a sort of high-wire actor. That’s what Nicole is. And she’s both serious actor and knockout movie star. And on top of it, we have an invisible language because we’ve worked together so long.

“When casting her leading man, that is not an easy job, because you’ve got a screen goddess -- and it’s not easy to stand next to a goddess, you know?”

The lucky winner was fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman, who plays the rough-hewn drover (cattle driver) who falls for Kidman’s tightly laced English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley. Sarah has no children but over the course of the film forges a powerful bond with an aboriginal boy.

In discussing his friend’s unique stamp on the role, Luhrmann cites a romantic scene between Sarah and the drover under a boab tree in the desert, lit only by a spotlight-bright moon.

“Nicole has two lovely children [Stella and Connor], but she’s always wanted to give birth. I’ve known about that journey for a long time,” Luhrmann says. “What’s so extraordinary, and this is not gilding the lily at all, is she has a scene with the drover which actually says this about her desire for this to happen.”

When Sarah confesses she can’t have children, the drover responds, “Too bad. You would have been a great mom.” Her eyes go red and her breath catches almost imperceptibly in her chest.

“So Nicole calls me over, I’m shooting one day, she says, ‘Bazzy, Bazzy, I’ve got to talk to you.’ And I’m like, ‘Uh-oh, here we go,’ ” Luhrmann laughs, then says, “So I sat down with her and she said, ‘Look, I’m pregnant.’ And she burst into tears, of course, and I was so moved by it. When a moment like that happens that’s really genuine and you’re sharing it right in the middle of what we call work, and it happens to be somehow reflective of the journey we’re going on in the film, that doesn’t happen that often.”

It all comes down to family for Kidman, who with her husband, Aussie country singer Keith Urban, welcomed baby Sunday Rose into her life over the summer and loves nothing more than settling in at home on the family’s rural spread outside of Nashville and watching soccer, football or hockey (yes, hockey).

Reading, she also lists among her indulgences, “and my organic vegetable garden. Pretty simple, boring things. And my husband and my daughter. Yeah, they give me the most joy. My newborn daughter, Bella Jane, Connor Cruise and Keith Urban. They’re the things I’m most passionate about.”

--

calendar@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

HER GOLDEN ROLES

Kidman surely has a shelf at home filled with acting awards of one sort or another but they go back a few years. “Australia” may give her a shiny new trophy to make room for. Here’s a look at some of her honors:

OSCAR

2003: Won lead actress, “The Hours”

BAFTA

2003: Won for lead actress, “The Hours”

GOLDEN GLOBE

2003: Best performance by an actress in a drama, “The Hours”

2002: Best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy, “Moulin Rouge”

1996: Best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy, “To Die For”