Nicole Kidman shares details of how viral AMC ad came to be, teases ideas for ‘next one’

Nicole Kidman knows that “indescribable feeling” of when the lights dim in the movie theater all too well. That is, of course, because she’s the star of AMC Theaters’ now-viral ad that plays before the theater chain’s movies.

It’s a role that Kidman takes very seriously, telling Elle magazine in an interview published on Tuesday that she took on the project out of her “desire to keep cinemas alive.”

“I’ve had the best experiences in cinema. I’d pretend I was going to school; I’d forge a note, and I’d go and sit in a movie theater,” she said. “That’s a safe haven for me, so the idea of those not existing – that’s just not part of the equation in my lifetime.”

Kidman told the publication she filmed the spot over one weekend while working on the movie “Being the Ricardos” in Los Angeles, recruiting that film’s director of photography as well as a screenwriter friend to make it happen.

The ad campaign debuted in 2021 as a means of encouraging people to return to seeing movies at the theater after the pandemic, and ever since, it has become a cultural sensation with “Saturday Night Live” spoofs, memes running rampant on social media and even the Michael Kors pinstripe suit Kidman wore in the ad selling at auction for $9,525. Moviegoers often recite Kidman’s monologue aloud along with her in the darkened theater, to the guffaws and laughter of other patrons.

One trend Kidman is eager to get in on is that of the drag performers who, according to Elle, have recreated the ad in their acts.

“My dream will be to be onstage doing it with a drag queen,” Kidman told the outlet. “I’ve got to be able to do that at some point.”

Perhaps that’s a concept for “the next one,” which Kidman teased in the interview she’s brainstorming ideas for.

One thing is for sure, though: Kidman’s AMC ad will continue to keep moviegoers coming to “this place for magic.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com