Nicole Kidman has been a staple of movies and TV shows for decades. The Oscar-winning actor has starred in blockbusters like “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdon,” family films like “Paddington,” and historical dramas like “The Hours.” Kidman’s personal life, including her high-profile marriages to Tom Cruise and country musician Keith Urban, has garnered a lot of attention as well.

While it may feel like Kidman is an open book, some parts of her life are more obscure. For instance, Kidman used to be significantly near-sighted. “I was walking around legally blind,” the actor informed Marie Claire in 2007. At times, she found her vision difficulties helpful and prevented her from seeing things she didn’t want to see. For example, since audiences’ faces were blurry when Kidman did a play in the late 1990s, she didn’t worry about gauging their reactions. In 2015, Kidman divulged that she continues to struggle with onstage anxiety. If anything, she believes this emotion has increased despite her years of acting experience.

While she still occasionally deals with stage fright, her eyesight is no longer a concern. In 2007, Kidman opted for LASIK eye surgery, and she was amazed by the difference. “Now I have 20-20 vision. I can’t believe I spent so many years blurry, but I think that coincides with how I was feeling,” she explained. In addition to this dramatic improvement in vision, here’s more intriguing trivia about this well-known actor.

Kidman has unconventional animal preferences

During a 2003 appearance on “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross,” Nicole Kidman spoke about the excitement of swimming in the ocean when she spent time in Australia. Being in the water is one of Kidman’s top activities, regardless of the temperature or time of day. When Ross expressed concern about encountering sharks, Kidman casually dismissed his fear. “Oh, I don’t worry about those … I love them,” she explained. “I go diving with the sharks.” The actor discussed the spiritual aspects of the experience, adding, “What’s really fascinating is that when you get under, you can actually feel when a shark is present.” As Ross became perplexed, Kidman elaborated that she maintains a respectful distance. Ironically, while the actor stays away from more dangerous shark species, there is a Great White named in her honor. Like her Hollywood namesake, Nicole the Shark gained worldwide fame and even catalyzed conservation efforts.

While she’s enthusiastic about animals that many people find threatening, Kidman’s big fear involves an animal that many find innocuous: butterflies. In 2005, Kidman recalled being freaked out as a kid when she saw large butterflies outside her house. Despite her efforts, her uneasiness around butterflies has remained. “I could be covered in cockroaches … but I just don’t like the feel of butterflies’ bodies,” Kidman told UPI.

She clarified a rumor about her and Hugh Jackman

Besides being brave around sharks, Nicole Kidman is also reputedly courageous around scorpions. During the production of the movie “Australia,” Kidman reportedly displayed quick decision-making when she plucked a poisonous scorpion off Hugh Jackman before its sting could harm him. While this makes for an action-filled story, Kidman refuted this dramatic account. “I don’t think we even have scorpions here,” she asserted to “Extra” in 2007. “It’s quite good to be able to do these interviews and say what’s definitely untrue.”

However, one thing that is true is that Kidman and Jackman have a longstanding connection that goes back to the early 1990s. Early in her acting career, Kidman bonded with Jackman’s ex-wife, Deborah-Lee Furness. Once Jackman and Furness’ romance bloomed, Kidman enjoyed a strong friendship with the couple.

When it comes to tall tales about Kidman, no one is immune, and she’s contributed to her own mythology. As a kid, Kidman told her classmates varying stories about her birth, saying it occurred in the ocean or on the beach. While Kidman was actually born in Hawaii, the specific location was more banal. “I was born in a hospital, but I kind of liked the drama of the story,” she divulged on the podcast “Five Things with Lynn Hirschberg.” Kidman’s parents are Australian, and at the time, they were studying abroad in Hawaii. For most of her childhood, however, Kidman lived in Australia.

Kidman has altered her appearance dramatically for her onscreen characters

Scorpions or not, Kidman is willing to go to great lengths for her film roles. As part of Kidman’s stunning transformation, she relied on a constrictive corset to help her get into the mindset of her character in “Portrait of a Lady.” “‘We got the corset down to 19 inches … I would be in pain and have bruises,” Kidman informed The New York Times in 1997. “I wanted to be restricted really, really tight so that the more repressed I was, the more I felt it.” A few years later, for “Moulin Rouge,” Kidman tried to achieve an even smaller waist of 18 inches. Unfortunately, she broke a previously injured rib in the process.

Surprisingly, another change made for one of Kidman’s earliest roles was her hair color. Although she was already a redhead, when she worked on “BMX Bandits” as a teen, the production team colored her hair an even more coppery hue. “I went to school, and everyone teased me, and then I kind of loved it,” Kidman recalled on “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.” However, Kidman did note that her voluminous onscreen curls were her hair’s natural texture.

For “The Hours,” Kidman changed her look even more with a prosthetic nose. While the choice was divisive with audiences and some film execs, Kidman embraced being unrecognizable for a time and found it beneficial to her acting.

Kidman’s dealt with pregnancy loss

Another area where Nicole Kidman would like to set the record straight involves her struggles with pregnancy loss. Kidman was young when she married Tom Cruise and was eager to become a parent. “From the minute Tom [Cruise] and I were married, I wanted to have babies,” Kidman recalled to Vanity Fair in 2007. At the time, Kidman was smitten with Cruise and unconcerned about how marriage and motherhood might impact her acting career. She was devastated when she experienced an ectopic pregnancy. “We lost a baby early on, so that was really very traumatic,” she explained. Shortly before the couple’s marriage ended in 2001, Kidman experienced a miscarriage, adding to her distress. Over the years, Kidman has voiced her concern that the grief of pregnancy loss doesn’t receive enough attention. She’s also expressed a need to clarify the specifics about the distinction between each of her pregnancy losses.

Cruise and Kidman became parents when they adopted two children during their marriage. Later, while to Keith Urban, Kidman was surprised to discover she was pregnant. “It was a miracle because I’d not thought I’d be able to have [a baby] in my lifetime,” Kidman explained to Tatler in 2018.

Her food choices are exceedingly diverse

Nicole Kidman enjoys a variety of foods. She’s particularly enthusiastic about shellfish, like oysters and lobster, and fresh bread with cheese, which is her favorite. Kidman also pays homage to her Australian upbringing by enjoying a sandwich known as a sausage sizzle. She’s flexible and changes her habits based on her situation. While Kidman has indulged in less healthy, more-processed foods when traveling with her husband, Keith Urban, she often enjoys a glass of wheatgrass at home.

Although Kidman says she doesn’t like ham, there’s very little the actor won’t consume. In 2014, Kidman told the Los Angeles Times, “I pretty much eat anything, but all in moderation. She wasn’t kidding. Four years later, Kidman dined on some creepy-crawlies, aka “micro-livestock” in a video for Vanity Fair. Kidman savored wiggly, neon blue hornworms, which had the appearance of gummy candy. After that, she enjoyed mealworms that she claimed had “a fruity taste — I’d recommend it.” Kidman then moved on to crickets, which she described as a “hairy nut,” and fried grasshoppers, which she particularly liked.

Kidman’s willingness to eat bugs came in handy during her first film. At the time, the then-teenage actor ate witchetty grubs onscreen in “Bush Christmas.” From the start, this request was an easy task for Kidman. “I was excited to do that,” Kidman told W Magazine in 2017. “That’s my secret skill.”