Nicole Kidman Says Her Late Mother Was Always ‘My Compass’ in Life (Exclusive)

Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldaña sit down with Extra’s Melvin Robert to discuss season 2 of the spy drama Special Ops: Lioness.

Nicole will play Caitlin Meade, a senior supervisor and tough leader at the CIA, and Zoe will play Joe, the head of the CIA’s Lioness Program.

Kidman said that in her life, her late mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, who just passed away in September, has always been her mentor.

“My mother has obviously been a big guide in my life and probably a compass in everything I’ve done,” Nicole said. “I always reached out to her, but I also had great teachers. I had a lot of really, really smart women who stepped up and showed me the way.”

Zoe’s character, Joe, tries to prioritize her family life and mental health, but credits a supportive partner in her husband, Marco Perego, for building a career that requires time off.

“Having the most supportive partner in my life is the only reason I’m able to do what I want,” Zoe said. “My husband kind of denounced this whole concept of telling the kids I have to go, not that I want to go, very early on, that I was distancing myself from them. It’s a different approach to this conversation where I let the boys know that I give them a lot of love and happiness, so they can kind of have a different perspective on it. It feels more like a part of it, as opposed to you living away from me and me on this side, no, we’re together all the time.”

She added: “I can’t imagine what Joe’s life would be like. To sacrifice his life and mental health for other families and other people. People who accept and commit to sacrificing themselves at any time and at any cost…I have a lot of respect for them.”

Nicole also talked about how she and Keith Urban involve the whole family in everything they do.

“We travel together as a family, or it’s structured so that I can come in and go out, come in and go out,” Kidman said. “Part of what I’ve always done… I include the whole family, and in conversation I refer to them as ‘our shows’… Keith calls them ‘our albums.’ So a lot of it is in our family. Even when I’m in front of the camera, we all contribute and they support me and provide an emotional well for me to draw from. ”

Zoe also spoke about how she trained for the role: He’s a former Delta Air Lines special forces guy, he’s retired, and we just put ourselves in his hands and worked with a great stunt coordinator. ”

Saldaña added that creator Taylor Sheridan was “so inspiring every day to be surrounded by veterans who guided us every step of the way, rather than feeling like we had to figure it out on our own.” Ta.