Meryl Streep gives fitting onstage tribute to Nicole Kidman, recalling golden times

Nicole Kidman received the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award as a tribute to her lengthy Hollywood career on Saturday night, in the presence of Hollywood A-listers including her friends and partners.

Throughout the ceremony, Reese Witherspoon, Morgan Freeman, Naomi Watts, Zoe Saldaña, Aaron Sorkin, Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Joey King, Mike Myers, and husband Keith Urban took the Dolby Theatre stage to honour Kidman. Meryl Streep gave her the trophy as the ceremony came to a close.

Streep — quipped after a clip was shown, “Did anyone notice that [costume designer] Ann Roth gave her my nose in The Hours? You’re welcome” — took the time to reflect on working opposite Kidman in season two of Big Little Lies.

“For me, the very, very hardest part of being incessantly called the greatest actress of my generation,” Streep teased by tossing her hand theatrically over her head as the crowd cheered.

“What is the hardest part? Oh! The hardest part is when you come up against, or you’re acting with, another person who is also really, really, really, really, really, really great. That’s difficult.”

“It’s like somebody who you work all day with and you go home — ‘That was a great day, great day,’ and you go home and you go, ‘How did she do that?'” the star teased as she pretended to pour a drink.

“‘I could do that.’ ‘No, I don’t think I could.’ ‘Yes, you could!’ ‘No, no, you couldn’t do that,'” miming downing the drink.

Looking back on Big Little Lies, Streep recalled, “That’s the time when I really came within breathing distance of the formidable gifts Nicole has, and her process and her seismic bank of emotion she’s got locked up inside there and her stamina and her drive to be an artist and her discipline.”

She recalled the day Kidman decided to repeatedly record an intensely passionate screaming sequence on the first day.

“I haven’t recovered from that first day, I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Streep added. “For me, it was traumatizing because I thought this woman is a Valkyrie. How is she able to sustain that? Never letting up, never letting down.”

Upon accepting the award, Kidman gushed, “Meryl Streep, I just love you, I’ve always loved you; I don’t know what it is but you’re a beacon of excellence and warmth and generosity but you’ve been my guiding light, so to receive this from you, you have no idea. My husband will attest, my parents will attest, it’s always been you, and no one can touch you.”