N.Y. Film Festival: Nicole Kidman burns in "The Paperboy"

Nicole Kidman star as Charlotte Bless, a "prison groupie" visiting her jailed fiance, in "The Paperboy." / Millennium Films

NEW YORK "I don't see her as crazy, because I see very few people as crazy," said Nicole Kidman of the character she portrays in a scorching new melodrama, "The Paperboy."

Kidman's daring performance as Charlotte Bless, a Southern woman who engages in erotic correspondence with a death row inmate and then fights to prove his innocence, is one of the most uninhibited seen on screen in recent years.

Based on the novel by Peter Dexter that was inspired by a true story, "The Paperboy" follows a pair of doubtful reporters (Matthew McConaughey and David Oyelowo) investigating evidence that might prove the man whom Charlotte seeks to free is indeed innocent. Also in the mix is Jack (played by Zac Efron), the 20-year-old brother of one reporter, who is attracted to the 40-ish Charlotte in ways that could only lead to trouble for all.

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New York Film Festival 2012

Speaking at the New York Film Festival, where the film screened prior to its opening in theaters on Friday, Kidman said that in preparing for the role she met with five women who were themselves "prison groupies."

"For me, playing it, it's a woman who is obviously very damaged and is terrified of intimacy, of being close to someone, which is a common thread a lot of time with the relationships with people in prison, because they're in prison - as soon as they get out, it's a whole different thing.

"I said, 'I don't know how I'm going to be authentic in this role,' and one of them said, 'You go, girl!' She kind of gave me the confidence. And then I just let it flow out of me, I kind of went with it. I didn't want to censor myself in any way, and so I just went straight into the character and didn't step out of it until we were done filming.

"For me the freedom of her sexuality was important. I didn't want to be saying 'No' to anything, which is an important part of being an actor, is learning not to shut down and not to say 'No,' and be completely free. I think as you get older you get a little more frightened - that's the thing that makes me want to go, 'Oh, screw this, I just want to push through that,' and never stop myself from fighting through my own insecurities."

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Lee Daniels, an Academy Award-nominee for "Precious," said he looked for inspiration to films from the late 1960s and early '70s, such as "Cool Hand Luke," hoping audiences would feel that they were watching a movie dating from that period, with its camerawork, editing, acting and music. In addition to the zoom lenses and jump cuts, the film also captures the feeling of a time when cinema's new-found sexual frankness was pushing the boundaries of audience acceptance.

Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron in "The Paperboy."

/ Millennium Films

Kidman said she wanted to be very visceral in her performance rather than intellectualize her approach to playing Charlotte. "I just wanted to abandon myself to it," she said. "I suppose my whole thing that I've gone through as an actor is fulfill a director's vision, because that's what you're hired to do. I have opinions and I have ideas and I'm there to stimulate hopefully and ignite things in a director, but at the same time I'm not going to stop him.

"I really try with every director I've worked with never to pull them off their vision. You're there as their muse sometimes, you're there as their conduit. You're there to create a character together. So that's where the spreading the legs and all that stuff came from, because I wanted to please Lee!

"I'm now 45 years old and I've worked a lot with many different directors and many different places and experienced so many things. I just want to push myself, I wanted to be in place that I haven't been before. I wanted to be uncomfortable in those places sometimes, but I wanted to go home at night and feel discomfort at times, and feel challenged. It's very, very hard to find those roles."

In addition to Charlotte's determined efforts to free the convict played by John Cusack from prison, she also finds herself an object of lust for 20-year-old Jack. It's a role Charlotte fulfills not too unwillingly, but with an eye on the Big Picture.

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[shamana1]

all women in any abusive relationships should watch this film. Should've been rated NC-17 due to the sadomasochism in Kidman/J.Cusak's sex scenes on the dryer treating her like nothing but a dog or pig or anything less than a woman god forbid this is a film all women who date criminals should see to learn what its like to be treated like youre a dormat submissive abused controlled to your own death if he cant have his way he will kill you.
It felt like throwing up after film was over. Grossed me out to have to sit near old fat pig hillbillies in UT where this kind of thing goes on beyond suits/ties women are degraded in this manner but these mormons never get punished or put on death row. instead bishops cover it up. Knowing they probably got off in the theatre the way she let cusak jolt her like a plastic rag doll and then in the middle of his sodomizing of her she asks if he even thinks she's pretty excellent acting here portraying another sadomasochist broken abused insecure older probably infested w/every std there is and whom probably could never give birth to her own children== furthermore . How much of it was video edited and how much acted. he had sex with her until he killed her basically. men whove been in prison and who murder only see violence in everything no matter what. they are not and cannot be civilized. the film did portray the realities of the psyche's of the circumstances of everyone involved in that time. beside the sickness in humanity that has to be shown film is to show the truth. just like when the prosecutor of the texas woman who put beat her 2 yr child into a coma almost to death portrayed the results of her violence on pictures shoving them in front of the accused native american woman who beat her daughter.
i am shocked at the positions kidman got herself into to portray the murderous uncivilized monster within cusak's character. She was raped over and over, the only thing lacking was blood, the way he sodomized her as if he were a methhead, there shouldve been blood flying everywhere its not possible the way he ripped her insides apart colon genitals theres no way she shouldve bled to death or passed out into a coma

[test_tester]

I like Nicole Kidman.

[johnbrown6]

Interesting. I think she is really pushing herself here. Her soft sweet girl look belies a certain intensity inside that she is trying to channel.

[Nate650]

Cool. She doesn't look 45.