Nicole Kidman, with Ariana Grande, reflects on how fame has changed in the age of social media and what she’s learning from her own children as she navigates it.
In a candid conversation with Ariana Grande to Interview MagazineThe 58-year-old actress talked about trying to embrace a certain kind of strength she sees in her teenage daughters.
Grande, now 32 and fresh off her role as Glinda in Evil: forevershared how overwhelming the shift to global stardom was for her.
He described it as a “big adjustment” that came after his life changed in a “very drastic way.”
Kidman understood this immediately, explaining that when fame comes early, “they put you in this fishbowl and everything gets dissected.”
He said this can quickly turn into overthinking, fear and pain until you start to feel, “I don’t want to go out now. I don’t want to venture out into this world.”
Kidman said the push and pull between gratitude and pressure is universal, but she believes young people today navigate it differently.
As the mother of four children, Bella, 32, and Connor, 30, with Tom Cruise, and Sunday Rose, 17, and Faith Margaret, 14, with Keith Urban, she has watched her youngest daughters handle online scrutiny in a way she never could at her age.
“I think they have armor that we didn’t get,” he said. Growing up without social media meant she never developed the resilience her daughters seem to have naturally.
According to Kidman, “The very, very young people have already said, ‘We know exactly how to handle this.’ They don’t take a lot of things personally. They ignore it.”
Grande admitted that sometimes she wishes she had the same peace of mind and said she wants “a little dose of that” confidence. Kidman immediately agreed: “We need that lesson.”
Grande added that trying to maintain that mindset constantly could seem like too much, explaining that she sometimes realized, “This is my ego doing this.”
He wondered if the emotional “dance” that comes with public attention should really be part of being an artist.
Kidman encouraged her to follow what Grande called “the spiritually enlightened route,” but the singer admitted that she still loves the idea of speaking freely like younger generations do.
“I actually prefer to go the cool young person route and just say what’s on my mind sometimes,” Grande said, though she added with a laugh that she usually ends up doing “a meditation and moving on.”
Together, the two stars offered an honest and informed look at how fame feels different today and why the next generation might be handling it better than anyone expected.
