America 1987

Chapter 79 Best Friend

"Why? Why did you recommend her for this role?"

"Didn't you say that the temperature difference between day and night at the filming location is too great for most people to handle?"

"yes."

"That settles it then. Naomi is an Australian girl like me, and her family has no history of skin cancer. Her skin is very resilient, so it should meet your requirements."

Nicole knew, of course, that wasn't what David was asking, but she still avoided the question altogether.

David was introduced to Naomi partly because the two were on good terms.

In the original timeline, when she suffered a huge blow during her divorce from Tom Cruise, Naomi stayed by her side the whole time. The two even lived together, and Nicole later declared that Naomi was "family for life."

In April 2004, Naomi praised Nicole at the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony, saying she was "like a sister I've never had before"; in June of the same year, Nicole also attended Naomi's wedding to Billy Crudup.

To some extent, the two are indeed as close as sisters, which is why they have become the most well-known best friend duo in Hollywood.

Such instances of introducing connections to each other in business have also occurred in the original timeline.

Naomi arrived in Hollywood around 1993, a few years after Nicole had been married to Tom Cruise.

Seeing that her best friend was having a rough time, she took the initiative to take her to movie premieres, parties, dinners and other social occasions, and introduced her to some directors and producers.

However, Hollywood is a place that values ​​equivalent exchange. Although Nicole is Tom Cruise's wife, she doesn't have any substantial resources to exchange to make him pay more attention to Naomi.

So most people just "said nice things but didn't make any real promises," which was of very limited help to their best friend's career. It wasn't until she was 33 years old in 2001 that she had a career breakthrough with "Mulholland Drive" and got on the right track.

However, this only shows that she wanted to help but couldn't, not that she didn't want to help. Otherwise, Naomi wouldn't have expressed her gratitude to her publicly on multiple occasions later.

As for the question David asked, Nicole didn't even consider it a question.

Her best friend couldn't possibly succeed in the film and television industry without going through some trials, and she had already tested the waters for her—he was handsome, had a great physique, and most importantly, was very trustworthy, so there was basically no need to worry about him being taken advantage of.

Since she wasn't the main wife and had no intention of becoming one, she wasn't jealous at all.

That's why she introduced him to David.

One reason was that the two had a good relationship, but another reason was that she felt too lonely.

In a 2019 interview with InStyle, Nicole mentioned that her Miles Briggs personality test results matched the definition of an introvert, and that she had a "deeply sensitive" personality type, needing to recharge by returning to her private family space.

While public figures may say certain things to maintain their public image, discussing whether they are introverted or extroverted shouldn't have much to do with that. Moreover, Nicole brought it up herself and went into great detail, so it should be a genuine reflection of her own feelings.

Although many people have a stereotypical view of introverts as not needing to draw energy from the outside world, preferring to be alone, and disliking interpersonal communication.

In fact, introverts simply value the depth of emotions rather than their breadth. It's not that they don't need friends at all, but rather that they don't need that many. One or two close friends are still very necessary.

"Besides, I don't have many friends here, and you always come and go so quickly," Nicole said with a hint of complaint. "If I don't find myself a companion soon, I feel like my mental health is going to suffer."

"No friends?" David folded her up, leaned close to her, and asked knowingly, "You seemed to be having a good time chatting with people on the red carpet last time, how come you don't have any friends?"

Of course he knows why.

The entertainment industry is a typical project-based collaboration place. After filming a movie, the actors will go their separate ways to move on to the next project, making it difficult to have stable time and opportunities to cultivate deep friendships.

In addition, people in the entertainment industry have busy schedules and are often away filming, so maintaining long-term, stable, and deep relationships is very costly.

Therefore, many established Hollywood introverted actors have mentioned in interviews that they rely on the companionship of childhood friends they have known for many years to balance the pressure brought by the industry. This kind of relationship built from childhood is irreplaceable by connections within the industry.

This is especially evident among actresses.

Because classic Hollywood narratives have long used "women turning against each other for men/resources" as the point of dramatic conflict, the big screen has constantly reinforced the narrative that "there is bound to be conflict and jealousy among women."

This culture, in turn, influences how women perceive each other in real life, making actresses more cautious about forming friendships.

Moreover, tabloid reporters are notorious for their over-sexualized interpretations of intimate relationships among Hollywood women, making many actresses hesitant to publicly display overly close friendships for fear of being misinterpreted.

In 2015, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Campbell shared a passionate kiss while wearing shower caps at an awards ceremony. Sure enough, the next day, the entertainment front page featured a news report with the headline "Hollywood's two top actresses embroiled in same-sex scandal? 100,000 netizens excitedly like: They must have been together!"

Hmm? Something's not right. I've discovered a blind spot!

"Something's not right!" David quickly put Nicole's legs down, looking her seriously into her eyes. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"Hidden from you? What are you hiding from you?" Nicole, who felt like she was about to take off, asked with some confusion.

Seeing that the other person's expression was indeed very serious, she quickly sat up as well. "Am I hiding something from you, David?"

"Besides the fact that she's your best friend and you need company, is there any other reason why you recommended Naomi to me?"

"Other? What other reason could there be besides these?" Nicole brushed a strand of hair, damp with sweat, behind her ear. "Are you misunderstanding something, David?"

"It's impossible not to misunderstand. The more you talk, the more I feel there's something fishy going on between you two."

"What do you mean?"

Are you lesbians?

This isn't David being overly pessimistic; it's because gossip about the two of them did indeed surface in the original timeline, and it was quite detailed and convincing.

According to a Twitter user, Nicole Kidman is bisexual and previously dated Naomi Watts.

The person who posted this even cited the source, a screenshot of a webpage that read ———

"We recently had Nicole Kidman on our podcast, and she revealed some rather surprising information. The actress had a romantic relationship with another actress, Naomi Watts. It didn't last long, but Nicole admitted that she is a very proud bisexual woman."

He later conducted an in-depth study of the matter and discovered several logical flaws.

First of all, the webpage screenshot used as the source of the information in this post is completely unidentifiable as to which media outlet it comes from.

Secondly, in all the publicly available information, Nicole Kidman has never hinted at having any sexual orientation other than heterosexuality, unlike Jodie Foster.

Moreover, given her status, it's impossible for her to announce such news on some obscure podcast.

Based on the above analysis, the screenshot of the webpage posted by that anonymous netizen is most likely faked to attract traffic.