Nicole Kidman is ready to branch out beyond acting for her next chapter. During a talk at the University of San Francisco on Saturday, she revealed that she is training to be a death doula.
A death doula — recently depicted in an episode of “The Pitt” in which a woman had terminal cancer — is a non-medical companion who helps support people navigating death, loss and mortality. According to the International End of Life Doula Association, the caregivers can offer psychosocial, emotional, spiritual and practical support.
As part of the private university’s Silk Speaker Series, the actress said the idea came after her mother died at 84 in 2024. She admitted it sounded “a little weird.”
“As my mother was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide,” Kidman told the crowd, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Between my sister and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work, and wanting to take care of her because my father wasn’t in the world anymore, and that’s when I went, ‘I wish there was these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care.’”
“So that’s part of my expansion and one of the things I will be learning,” she said. Kidman’s father died in 2014 after suffering a fall. The busy actress recently starred in “Scarpetta” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” and has “Practical Magic 2” coming out later this year.
Kidman isn’t the only Hollywood figure interested in helping people navigate end-of-life concerns. “Hamnet” director Chloe Zhao also trained as a death doula, she told the New York Times. One of the motivations, Zhao said, was that “I have been terrified of death my whole life. I still am. And because I’ve been so afraid I haven’t been able to live fully…And because I’m so scared of it, I have no choice but to start to develop a healthier relationship with it, or the second half of life would be too hard. It shouldn’t be this terrifying that I can’t even live.”
Source: variety.com
