Nicole Kidman, who “makes movies better,” receives the AFI Life Achievement Award

LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman spoke the words, but just about everyone who took the stage at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony agreed: “Nicole Kidman. She makes films better.”

The line came in a video parody of Kidman's AMC Theaters ad “We Make Movies Better,” which opened Saturday night's ceremony at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. There was much laughter from the crowd of multi-generational A-listers who were there to honor the 56-year-old Australian's 40-year career, which has included roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and an Oscar -winning role included “The Hours.”

Meryl Streep, co-star of Kidman's “The Hours,” who presented Streep with the Life Achievement Award she won herself in 2004, received almost as much laughter when, with mock braggadocio, she described the hardest part, “incessantly as “the hour “To be called the greatest actress of my generation.”

It's when you meet someone else who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and you realize they've done things you couldn't do, like Kidman did on her first day Working together on the HBO series “Big Little Lies” happened, Streep said.

Streep and her Big Little Lies co-star Reese Witherspoon both delivered spot-on, Australian-accented impressions of Kidman that left the audience in awe.

Streep also brought Kidman to tears as he described what she said motivated her.

“People call it bravery when an actress puts it all out there, throws herself into the unknown and delves deep into the darker sides of what it is to be human,” Streep said. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it's love. I think she just loves it.”

Kidman broke down in tears for the first time in the evening when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith Urban, said she had shown him “what love in action really looks like” when his drug problems surfaced almost immediately after their wedding in 2006 .

“Four months after we got married, I'm in rehab for three months,” Urban said, looking at Kidman, who sat on a podium with her two daughters and other family members. “Nic cut through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.”

Kidman said the night was the first time she had allowed her teenage daughters to join her on a red carpet. She also has two children with her first husband, Tom Cruise.

She accepted the AFI award at the same venue where she accepted her Oscar in 2003 for her role as Virginia Woolf in “The Hours.”

She specifically thanked all the directors she worked with, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.

“It is a privilege to make films. And it's great to have done films and television with these storytellers that allowed me to be wild and free and play all these unconventional women,” said Kidman, wearing a floor-length, glittering gold dress. “Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world.”

It was announced back in November 2022 that Kidman would receive the prize, which was first awarded in 1973 and whose previous winners include Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.

The ceremony was originally scheduled for June 2023, but was postponed due to the Hollywood strikes. It will air on TNT on June 17th.

Kidman was also nominated for the Oscars for Moulin Rouge, Rabbit Hole, Lion and Being the Ricardos, whose director Aaron Sorkin also praised her at the ceremony.

Other tributes to her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who took the stage dressed in one of the eerie orgy masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Kidman began her career as a teenager in Australia in films such as Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Naomi Watts, a friend from that time, described her meeting with Kidman when they both had to sit in a waiting room in swimsuits for two hours. At an audition, Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett paid tribute to the first winner of the award in their country.

Kidman said in a video played at the ceremony that her appearance in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm” brought her to the attention of, among others, Cruise, the only time his name was mentioned Saturday night.

She had her breakthrough Hollywood role alongside him in 1990's “Days of Thunder” – they married the same year – and also appeared together in 1992's “Far and Away” and in Kubrick's last film “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999.

She divorced Cruise in 2001, but her fame only grew in his wake. Some of her biggest roles and her Oscar were still to come.

The role most cited as a favorite at Saturday night's awards ceremony was her musical role in Luhrmann's 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”

Freeman, the 2011 AFI honoree, in his personal presentation following the video parody, serenaded Kidman with the modified Elton John lines she sings in the film: “How wonderful life is, now you're in the world .”