I could talk about Nicole Kidman for hours. Very few Hollywood actors have had careers this varied, this delightful, this weird — oh, and she’s also been married to Tom Cruise. She manages to be both chronically underestimated and overrated, and she’s recently found herself in a slew of roles where she embodies a slew of different rich white ladies, each miserable in their own specific ways. For this episode, I’m joined by the great Sam Sanders to talk about our own Kidman Syllabi and answer your questions about her most recent roles, (not) aging onscreen, and what makes her such an effective miserable rich person.

• Listen to Sam’s new podcast on KCRW, THE SAM SANDERS SHOW!

• Watch Sam and his splendid variety of shackets

• Follow Sam on IG

• My big feature on Nicole Kidman that came out during Big Little Lies: “How Many Times Does Nicole Kidman Have To Prove Herself?”

• I’m obviously obsessed with The Others

• It had been a hot minute since I watched To Die For but I’m just saying it’s in The Criterion Collection for a reason

• The cast of The Hours on Oprah in 2002

• Kristen Bell and Dax Sheppard do indeed sell diapers

• One of the questions cites Audrey Hepburn in her 60s

• Nicole Kidman wigs, ranked

• WTF is going on with kids toys right now (you can take this in any direction)

• The future of (downhill) skiing and livability of ski towns just generally

• The new Gladiator + Paul Mescal JUST GENERALLY

• Why does it feel like thrifting sucks now

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (this is the subscriber-only form!)

• Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.
• Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.
• Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
• Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.