Nicole Kidman almost quit the film industry to look after a "vegetable garden".
Nicole Kidman nearly walked away from Hollywood
The 54-year-old actress nearly moved away from the film world entirely, until her mother changed her mind.
The Oscar-winning star - who has Sunday, 13, and Faith, 11, with her husband Keith Urban, as well as Isabella, 29, and Connor, 27, with Tom Cruise - told the ‘In the Envelope’ podcast: "[My want to produce] was primarily built from a frustration with not having any sort of control over my destiny, in a way.
"I had reached a stage where it was like, ‘I’m not being asked to be in things.’ I’d moved to Nashville, we were living on a farm, I got pregnant, and my husband was working so I was very fortunate that I could say, 'This is probably now what I’m going to do.'
"Then my mom told me I needed a creative outlet and I said, 'I’ve got a vegetable garden now.' And she said, 'I feel like you shouldn’t move away from what you’ve spent your life doing.'"
The ‘Being the Ricardos’ star took her mother’s advice and went on to produce several films and TV shows, including ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘Nine Perfect Strangers', both of which she also starred in.
Nicole explained that producing gave her a degree of control over her career.
She said: "As actors, we can’t be control freaks. We’re not able to. We’re constantly in a position of being considered for a role, so someone else gets to really contribute to our destiny.
"Other people determine a lot of it, and that is just the nature of what we do, unless we become writers and directors and actors, and we can forge a path for ourselves. So much of it is going, 'Are you going to give me this chance? Please?’ And that’s still such a huge part of who I am."
Nicole also credits her parents for inspiring her from an early age, despite neither of them being actors.
She revealed: "It wasn’t like I grew up around actors or anything like that.
"I grew up around scientists and a nurse - which explains empathy, though. My father became a psychologist … there was always a discussion of people and social consciousness, and the idea of people navigating their lives: all the damage, trauma, joy, everything."
Tagged in Tom Cruise Keith Urban Nicole Kidman