Nicole Kidman was yearning to make a romantic comedy.
The Oscar winner wanted to shift course after playing a tragically depressed housewife in the miniseries âExpatsâ on Prime Video. She wanted to have a good time. She wanted Hollywood, for once, to send a rom-com script her way.
When she received the screenplay for âA Family Affair,â Kidman leapt at the opportunity to shed her dramatic persona and take on lighter material. In the Netflix film, premiering Friday, she channels Brooke Harwood, a widowed mom and award-winning memoirist with writerâs block. Brookeâs 24-year-old daughter, Zara (Joey King), still lives at home while working her thankless day job as an overworked personal assistant to Chris Cole (Zac Efron), a vain and insecure movie star who threatens to fire her over the slightest mistakes.
One afternoon, Brooke unexpectedly encounters Chris, whoâs 16 years her junior, and the physical attraction is instantaneous. It eventually blooms into real love, angering Zara; she worries that Chris will break Brookeâs heart just as he has with past exes. But Brooke is not just any woman. Sheâs got wisdom that comes with age, and Chrisâ global fame as the star of a superhero franchise means nothing to her. Instead, she sees the playful, loving man within him. And he truly values her, body and soul, and gives her something to write about again. (Is it getting hot in here?)
In âA Family Affair,â Zac Efron plays Chris Cole, a movie star who falls for Nicole Kidmanâs Brooke Harwood, the mother of his assistant.
(Tina Rowden/Netflix)
Kidman, 57, and Efron, 36, previously played lovers in 2012âs âThe Paperboy,â a gritty melodrama that has an extremely different ending. They were eager to reunite, this time in a joke-filled romance where the stakes are less life-and-death and more existential. The age-old question â What am I doing with my life? â reverberates throughout the film.
The Times recently spoke with Kidman, Efron and King to discuss the joys and taboos of filming a rom-com that pairs an older woman and younger man â a dynamic that continues to stoke public interest, and sometimes contempt. Kidman, as usual, was up for the challenge, and Efron found that irresistible. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
I watch a lot of romantic comedies, and this one stands out as a happy marriage of casting and writing. How did Carrie Solomonâs screenplay get into your hands?
Kidman: It was just one of those things where it was sent to me and I read it and I went, âYeah, I have to do something that is fun and funny and completely different.â Because Iâd been through âExpatsâ â you know, the trajectory of my career has always led me more towards drama. I was like, âPlease, Iâm begging to have some fun and to be considered for some sort of romantic comedy at some point.â So, this came to me, and I was like, âYes, please, please, please.â Because I never get offered them. I never get considered.
Efron: I think there was something specific about the characters that I felt there was a natural inroad to them. I could understand Chris on some levels and what he was going through, and that was just exciting to think about playing that for me. Then, of course, at that point Nicole was involved â and I dream of working with Nicole â and Joey was also in talks for It. That was just a dream scenario for a rom-com.
Kidman: Joey is so funny. It was that kind of thing [where] youâre going, âOK, great. Thereâs this young girl who can come in and just nail it.â
Efron: Initially the script was called â can I say that?
King: Yeah, say it. Weâre [with] the L.A. Times.
Kidman: It had a different title.
Efron: It had a different title, which made it really exciting to read. It was called âMotherfâ.â As soon as you get that script â when it says that on the front â you canât help but want to read it.
Nicole and Joey, yours is not a typical mother-daughter story. At times, the roles reverse, and Zara occupies the position of overprotective parent â in this case wanting to keep Brooke away from Chris. How did it feel to channel that?
King: One of the most truthful and realistic parts about this, which I really love, is that particular moment when a child, no matter how old they are, realizes that their parent is a person, not just their parent. [Zara] needs to learn to grow up a bit, and Brookeâs trying to teach her and help her make her own decisions. Zara wants to be an adult but [is] still stuck in this child role. I think they both really see each other for the first time in terms of, âYouâre not just my parent. Youâre a real woman who has womanly desires and I need to grow up. Iâm not just a kid.â That transition is really, deeply uncomfortable for them and they have a lot of tension and theyâre fighting, and Chris is caught in the middle of that tension.
Kidman: Thereâs an enormous amount of love, too. They like hanging out together. ⊠We watch TV together, we eat together, we watch shows together. Thereâs that sort of gap that I have that Iâve now filled with her, so at some point I have to let her go.
Joey King, left, says the one of the most truthful moments of the film is âwhen a child, no matter how old they are, realizes that their parent is a person, not just their parent.â
(Tina Rowden/Netflix)
Zac, you pull a Tom Hanks in âYouâve Got Mail.â You take a guy with villain qualities and make him worth rooting for. How did you connect with Chris?
Efron: I can relate to Chris in a number of ways, but it was fun to ⊠dive into different emotions and things that [make me] feel for him. Heâs struggling. Heâs not handling it the best. ⊠I think heâs honestly trying his best and itâs just hard. Heâs taking it out probably in a way he doesnât mean to be, but itâs very abrasive toward his assistant. [Then] he meets Brooke, who he doesnât have to really pretend to be anything but himself around.
Nicole and Zac, you both starred in âThe Paperboy.â Zacâs character was hopelessly in love with Nicoleâs, who in turn was hopelessly in love with a convicted felon (John Cusack). How was it reuniting 12 years later â for a rom-com?
Efron: The tone of [âThe Paperboyâ] is very different, but I think the building blocks of our characters were there for [âA Family Affairâ], and that was kind of an unrequited love. We didnât really get to take it the whole way and this really felt like we could draw a lot from that experience and take it to a whole new level. And it was easy. It felt really natural.
Kidman: Weâre very easy with each other. I mean, part of the thing was going, âIf youâre doing this, Iâll do it [with you].â We wanted to do it together. I know how funny he is and heâs also just brave. Actually, with the comedy and stuff, he was like, âOK, letâs try this. Weâll try that.â It was just âanything goes.â ⊠I just wanted to be able to be with a group of people who werenât going to take everything so seriously. That allowed us [to] just play. Because a lot of it is play.
The scene when Zara discovers Chris and Brooke in bed, then hits her head in horror, is a brilliant bit of physical comedy. How many takes did that require?
Kidman [motioning toward King]: The perfectionist here kept asking to do it again and again and again.
King: When Iâm doing anything that has any kind of stunt work in it, I like to watch [the] playback to see if Iâm selling it enough. The head bump looked fake for the first three or four takes, so I probably did six or seven or eight.
Kidman: More than that. Maybe 20, 15? Sheâs like, âIâll do it again!â Weâre like, âDonât hurt yourself.â
King: The two of them were so funny and supportive. They were getting such a kick out of it. They were off camera and they stayed to watch me.
Efron: It was so entertaining, we had to stay. Like, you were doing it 100%. There were no sound effects for you hitting your head. ⊠It was some serious Jim Carrey vibes.
Kidman: Lucille Ball.
Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman reunited for âA Family Affairâ after co-starring in 2012âs âThe Paperboy.â
(Netflix)
Like âThe Idea of You,â âA Family Affairâ is a lighthearted romance pairing an older woman and a younger man, a trope that society still treats with suspicion. Why are stories like this important to tell?
Kidman: I mean, I can only say Iâm glad the whole landscape is changing, and it shouldnât be an anomaly. ⊠Weâve had an abundance of older men and younger women, but we havenât had the abundance of older women with younger men. And why not? ⊠[âA Family Affairâ] was written by [Solomon], who went in and [said], âThis is what I want to tell. This is the story I want to tell.â Now weâre going to start to see the effects of the work that has been done for the last five, 10 years where weâre still trying to change the storytelling landscape and put women in places of power so they can tell these stories â whether they be comedies, whether they be dramas, whether they be thrillers, whatever they are. We just havenât had the equivalent that weâve had with the male gaze.
Efron: We want more of it. We need more of it.
Kidman: And weâre lucky to have guys like Zac who will go, âYeah, Iâm up for it. Letâs go.â
Efron: Yeah, it works out great for me. Iâm like â
King: âYes!â
Filmmakers have told me that they have a hard time persuading actors to star in romantic comedies. Why is that often the case?
King: I think maybe some people donât do [them] because theyâre afraid of not being taken seriously as a serious actor. ⊠People who are able to [act in] very different genres, I think itâs actually the biggest flex that you can have in terms of showing the range that you have. Look at Zac. He was training for âIron Clawâ while making âA Family Affair.â ⊠What a flex.
Efron: Itâs important. You really want to, I think, be able to at least try everything.
King: Comedyâs fun! Comedyâs fun and comedyâs hard. Comedyâs really hard.
Can comedy be harder than drama?
King: It can be.
Kidman: It depends whoâs at the helm. It depends on the chemistry.
Efron: If you can bring it to a place where itâs real, it kind of feels oddly similar to a drama.
Kidman: They always say itâs such a fine [line], especially when youâre doing a drama, you can move very, very quickly into satire or comedy. ⊠In that sense, itâs almost like with drama: Youâve got to go, âNo, no, stay here in the present moment.â Because if we start to ridicule it, it can move into that place very quickly and then itâs hard to move back.
King: Itâs hard, and itâs easier when you have a creative team thatâs supportive and the actors youâre working with are super-nonjudgmental. Weâre all sitting there while each of us takes these crazy swings in terms of improv and risky swings. Some of them donât work, but I donât feel embarrassed. ⊠Itâs still a difficult thing to get right sometimes, but you donât feel like thereâs any limitations on what you can do when youâve got really great people to work with.
Yes, the stars go to the grocery store. Zara (Joey King), left, takes Chris (Zac Efron) shopping.
(Aaron Epstein/Netflix)
In the film, itâs revealed that Chris has not shopped at a grocery store since becoming mega-famous. Can any of you relate?
King: No, I canât. I go to the grocery store all the time.
Kidman: I have teenage girls. We go to the grocery store because everybody wants something different.
King [to Kidman]: Do you find it hard to go to the grocery store, though? Just because everyone knows who you are?
Kidman: No. I put a cap on ⊠and I hold my head high, and we go in there.
King: I love the grocery store.
Kidman: I have to say itâs kind of fun and relaxing.
King: Some people find the grocery store very anxiety-inducing, but I actually find it really lovely. I think itâs so fun, especially because usually Iâm going to make something that Iâm excited to make.
Chris asks Zara to buy him strawberry-flavored Oreos. Zac, whatâs your go-to snack?
Kidman [to Efron]: Youâre a great snacker because [youâre] very healthy.
Efron: Iâve been eating super-clean lately.
King: I got him these protein Pop-Tarts as part of his wrap gift.
Efron: It was the sweetest thing Iâd had in months and it was so good. ⊠I think I had them all in one sitting.