I’m guessing she had plastic surgery at some point because her nose looked unnatural. I kept thinking her face looks different — not aged — but changed in shape. Sort of like Michael Jackson’s post-surgery dainty nose.
Needless to say, the sight of her nose kept breaking the “spell” of the movie. There was no plastic surgery in AD 900 or thereabouts.
That's very interesting.
Just out of interest - Had a minor character or say an extra in the background been played by a person of non white color, do you think that would have been more, less or about the same level of spell breaking as Nicole Kidman?
More. You could easily explain Kidman's weird nose as being a birth defect or the result of an injury, but how would a Pakistani or a Korean. a Latino or an African-American ever have found their way to 900 AD Iceland without a time machine? Latinos, a blend of Hispanic and Native American, for one, didn't even exist at that point in history.
An Arab merchant like Ibn Fadlan might have been permissible, but he would have been so incredibly rare as to warrant being the focus for the film, and we already had that in The 13th Warrior.
Even a person of color presented as an oddity or obvious outsider would not have been nearly as ridiculous and distracting as what you propose: A non-white person presented as just an average ordinary Viking. That's the very worst kind of diversity casting there is.
Within reason, I could accept the presence of a slave or a merchant of color, (Though this usually seems forced and unnecessary) but a Viking who just happens to be black? That totally destroys any credibility a movie would claim to have.
Latinos are a blend of European (mostly Spanish) and native American. Many have more European ancestry than Native American
shareMainly I found the sight of her nose distracting. The anachronistic aspect was an additional but much less significant factor.
shareInteresting, thanks.
I only asked because you pointed out the spell breaking plastic surgery aspect of her nose.
I'd argued in another thread that merely having a Nicole Kidman or a Willem Dafoe was enough to make an audience member aware that they were watching a film rather than a fly on the wall documentary filmed over a thousand years ago and therefore arguments in favour of non diverse casting purely based upon on historical authenticity were bust.
It was therefore quite funny to read your comments that actually went beyond Nicole Kidman per se and into the anachronistic point of the plastic surgery you pointed out.
Yes, I would agree that using recognizable/famous actors is spell-breaking in itself. On the plus side, famous actors are probably better actors, on average, than unknowns and their brands help to attract an audience.
I realize that there’s a bit of a hullabaloo nowadays about casting minority actors in roles of white historical figures or literary characters (e.g., the musical “Hamilton”). I do think the practice is spell breaking yet not always a bad thing. It doesn’t seem fair, though, that it be a one-way street. There are howls of outrage when minority roles go to people of the “wrong” ethnicity, much less race (e.g., a Korean actor playing a Japanese role). Seems like there should be a standard that audiences are *always* enjoined to suspend disbelief when it comes to casting. Which would mean that it would not be unthinkable to cast a white person in the role of the BBC’s drama “The Indian Doctor”. I don’t expect we’ll get there in my lifetime, though.
Her nose looks the same to me. It's the shape of her whole head around it that's changed and settled a bit.
sharehttps://media.radaronline.com/brand-img/Ln5naEK4g/2160x1130/2018/09/Nicole-Kidman-Plastic-Surgery-Facelift-Fillers-Botox-pp.jpg?position=top
Nose job, loose skin tightened, and a ton of makeup
She definitely looked a bit off.
Her nose is thin and her face is big and boxy looking. Very squared off. I'd nearly think she'd got jaw implants but it may be aging and weight loss causing a very lean face that makes it look like that. (Along with possible nose job, having a tiny thin nose will make the rest of her head look bigger.) Her face looked a lot smaller and softer back at the turn of the century in films like Eyes Wide Shut & The Others.
Yeah, her appearance is not radically altered — unlike some actresses of her generation who have gone under the knife, she is still recognizably herself. But I suspect she would now look better had she laid off the surgery, botox, fillers and/or whatever else she’s employed to stay youthful looking and just aged naturally.
shareI thought that was her! No wonder I hated this film.
shareGood thing her lip, cheek bone and lower mandible implants took attention away from her nose job(s). It's not just distracting but unnerving in an uncanny valley kind of way no matter what period a film is set, anachronism or no.
shareI agree. Seems like every week there’s yet another famously beautiful woman who has disfigured herself with plastic surgery in pursuit of eternal youth. This week it’s Megan Fox:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10819273/Billboard-Awards-2022-Best-dressed-stars-red-carpet.html
Was she getting it in your popcorn?
shareShe used to be a great actress. That's not really feasible anymore considering her face doesn't move.
share