One year after her father’s death, Nicole Kidman found a way to honor him publicly at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London on Sunday, Nov. 22. During her acceptance speech for Best Actress, she dedicated the accolade to her late father, who died in September 2014.
Kidman, 48, was recognized for her role as Rosalind Franklin, one of the scientists who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, in the play Photograph 51. Her father, Dr. Antony Kidman, was also a scientist.
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“This is my way of acknowledging him, but also of acknowledging people in science who quietly go about their work and do things and go unacknowledged a lot of the time,” Kidman said in her speech. “He knew I was going to do it, so I would like to think he is somewhere offering support.”
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Kidman also revealed during her speech that she knelt before a photograph of her late father before every performance.
“I did this for him,” she said. “He would give me the strength to do this every night.”
Dr. Kidman was a clinical psychologist at the Royal North Shore Hospital and a director of health psychology at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. He researched the psychosocial implications of breast cancer for patients. He died at the age of 75 after falling in a hotel in Singapore.
