Nicole Kidman has revealed her beloved mother has died, just hours before she was awarded Best Actress for her role in Babygirl at the Venice Film Festival, which came to a close on Saturday.

The actress, 57, who stars as a high-powered New York business executive who starts a risky affair with her much-younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not in attendance. 

Instead, her director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, revealing that Nicole’s mother Janelle died while she was in Venice. 

The statement read: ‘Today I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after, that my beautiful, brave mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed.

‘I am in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her, she shaped me, she guided me, and she made me.

Nicole Kidman has revealed her beloved mother has died, just hours before she was awarded Best Actress for her role in Babygirl at the Venice Film Festival , which came to a close Saturday

‘I’m in shock, and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her,’ the actress said in a statement, as Janelle’s passing meant the actress was unable to accept her Venice honour

‘I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina, the collision of life and art is heart-breaking, and my heart is broken.

‘We love you all.’

In an interview with the Fresh Air podcast in January 2022, Nicole spoke briefly about her mother’s health issues.

She said they’d managed to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales after-hours, where they took in the Matisse: Life & Spirit exhibition, describing it as ‘soothing balm’.

‘We’re down here primarily to take care of my mother and to have her surrounded by her grandchildren,’ she said.

‘So luckily yesterday, even though Omicron is raging through this country, we were able to take her into the gallery after hours and show her the Matisse exhibit, which coming from a mother who’s raised me in the arts, it was soothing balm. Matisse was soothing balm last night.’

Later in the interview, Nicole said she felt privileged to be able to see the world through her mother’s eyes, describing it as ‘so beneficial’.

‘I’m at the place where I’m being given the chance to view the world, because of how close we are, my mum is giving me the chance to view the world through an 81-year-old woman’s eyes,’ she explained.

‘That is so beneficial right now, because she’s so cognisant. She has every brain faculty available, so she hasn’t lost anything. She hasn’t lost any memory, which is fascinating, and she’s extremely bright.

‘She’s giving me access, because she’s also very direct and very honest, and so I’m getting access to the world through her eyes, my mother’s eyes, so therefore a part of me almost at 80.’

She added: ‘It’s her perspective, obviously. There’s many different 80-year-old perspectives, but it’s her perspective, and her particular path, but I’m drinking it in and learning.’

Her director Halina Reijn read a statement from the actor, revealing that Nicole’s mother died while she was in Venice, meaning she would be accepting her acting award on her behalf

In an interview with the Fresh Air podcast in January 2022, Nicole spoke briefly about her mother’s health issues

Nicole said she felt privileged to be able to see the world through her mother’s eyes, describing it as ‘so beneficial’. Pictured with her mother and sister Antonia

During Venice Film Festival, Nicole admitted she felt ‘vulnerable’ filming multiple scenes of masturbation, plus a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship for the erotic new thriller.

Rising British star Harris Dickinson has a career-making turn as Samuel, the intern who intuits that his boss Kidman, the CEO of a tech firm, wants to be dominated.

Nicole has made nothing like it since the dream-like erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut with then-husband Tom Cruise 25 years ago.

She said that an intimacy co-ordinator and closed set had been vital to conjuring the sex scenes which tell the story of her character’s existential crisis, resolved through a taboo-busting sexual odyssey.

The actress said: ‘I think this film is obviously yes about sex, but it’s about desire it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent.

‘This is one woman’s story and this is I hope a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze. It’s Halina (Reijn’s) script, she wrote it and she directs and that made it unique, that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very dear to our shared instincts and very, very freeing.’

The actress, 57, who stars as a high-powered New York business executive who starts a risky affair with her much-younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson, was not in attendance

During Venice Film Festival, Nicole admitted she felt ‘vulnerable’ filming multiple scenes of masturbation, plus a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship for the erotic new thriller

She added: ‘I don’t think there’s a judgement attached (about the character). It’s for each person to react to Romy and the way she behaves. 

‘My connection to it is that I want to examine human beings, women, on screen, to explore what it means to be human in all the facets of that and the labyrinth of that.’

She said that she was: ‘exposed and vulnerable and frightened when it comes to giving it to the world’ but that her experience of making it had been: ‘delicate and intimate and very deep.’

She said: ‘I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me. However anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of that. There was enormous caretaking by all of us, we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and, at the same time, real.’