Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor share Moulin Rouge secrets
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 16 years since beloved musical film Moulin Rouge first hit the big screen. Now, for the first time since 2001, its stars, Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, have reunited to share all the behind-the-scenes secrets of the film.
According to the on-screen couple, rehearsals for the film started six months before shooting began – but some of their hard work was all in vain. “I remember being in a dance studio with you and having to do all those different dances – salsa, tango [...] and we didn’t end up doing any of them [in the film],” Kidman reminisced to McGregor.
“And then the singing! I just remember you having this exquisite voice and me thinking, ‘I am never going to be able to hit these notes’. I was like, ‘Come on, practice, Nicole,’ and you’d come in and you were SO much better than me.”
In between shooting (over 1999 and 2000), the co-stars revealed they spent much of their time at the Sydney home of director Baz Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin. “We’d have great parties! Remember those Friday nights?” Kidman asked, to which McGregor cheekily replied, “Not all of them. Don’t remember all of them.”
It also seems that the two became acquainted with the Green Fairy in preparation for the film, set in ultra-Bohemian, 1900s Paris. “We had some pretty wild nights,” Kidman recalled. “I remember Absinthe being passed out at one point, and me going ‘Is this safe?’ I was so naïve. Then going, ‘I suppose it is!’ Dancing on the tables.”
See the full actor-on-actor interview below and tell us in the comments, were you a fan of Moulin Rouge?