Nicole Kidman is not afraid to trust her nose when it comes to establishing her boundaries at work.
The Oscar-winning actor recently opened up about her powerful olfactory sense in an interview with comedians Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers on their podcast Las Culturistas, revealing that working with actors who have “bad breath” has been a consistent problem for her.
“I’m very very smell sensitive,” Kidman, 58, said in the episode released Wednesday. “I’m either drawn to or drawn away based on a smell.”
She explained that another actor’s bad breath was her biggest dealbreaker when filming intimate scenes. “You could be the most gorgeous, gorgeous guy, and you come at me with bad breath and I’m like no, no, no. If I say breathe on me and I have to recoil? I’m out. I’m out. You could not offer me enough money,” she said,
Kidman remembered calling out Alexander Skarsgård’s lunch decisions when they filmed intimate scenes as married couple Celeste and Perry in the acclaimed psychological drama Big Little Lies.
“When Alexander Skarsgård ate a falafel sandwich before we did the scenes in Big Little Lies,” the star recalled. She added that she reprimanded the True Blood actor — who played her abusive husband in the acclaimed miniseries — saying, “I'm meant to be kissing you and into you. Put away the falafel now. Because the bad breath does not turn me on.”
“As I said, it is very important to smell good but more importantly, the mouth — the taste of the mouth and the smell of the mouth — is very important to me,” she continued.
When Rogers joked that Kidman was issuing a takedown of Skarsgård’s surging reputation as a heartthrob — which comes in part due to his recent performance as a dominant biker in Pillion — Kidman laughed and added, “I’m sure he did not eat a falafel ever again. Nope, not before you kiss. Not before you make love. Put the falafel away.”
The Babygirl star, who recently went through a divorce after 19 years of marriage to country star Keith Urban, went on to reveal that the best-smelling person she has ever met is none other than Rihanna. When Rogers and Yang chimed in to say they had heard similar rumors about Rihanna’s scent, Kidman replied, “Just know it’s all true,” adding that the global superstar smells “intoxicating.”
