Tom Cruise praises ex-wife Nicole Kidman in rare comments as romance rumors with Ana de Armas heat up

Fox News

10-05-2025

Tom Cruise is fondly remembering an experience with ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
Cruise, who was married to Kidman from 1990 to 2001, spoke to Sight and Sound magazine about his collaboration with legendary director Stanley Kubrick for 1999's "Eyes Wide Shut." In the erotic thriller, Cruise and Kidman co-star as a married couple, something Cruise now says was his idea.
"It was a great experience," he told the outlet of making the movie, according to Deadline. "I was very excited to do it. I knew Stanley's movies very well, and I was introduced to him through ["The Firm" director] Sydney Pollack. So, Stanley called Sydney 'cause he wanted me to make a movie. He sent me a fax.
"I flew out to his house, and I landed in his backyard. I read the script the day before, and we spent the day talking about it. I knew all of his films. I spoke to Scorsese about him and Sydney Pollack … so I knew what he did and how he worked. Then it was basically he and I getting to know each other. And when we were doing that, I suggested Nicole play the role [of Alice]. Because obviously she's a great actress."
He called making the movie "a very unique experience" and recalled that when they arrived to film, "the script was just an idea. We [were] constantly rewriting the scenes and shooting the scenes and then reshooting the scenes to really find the tone of the film."
Cruise and Kidman met while filming another movie together, "Days of Thunder," and they adopted two children together, Isabella and Connor, during their marriage.
After Cruise filed for divorce in 2001, citing "irreconcilable differences," Kidman married country star Keith Urban in 2006. The two are still together and share two daughters.
Cruise also remarried in 2006 to actress Katie Holmes. They welcomed one daughter, Suri, before divorcing in 2012.
More recently, the actor has been linked romantically to "Knives Out" actress Ana de Armas.
The two have been spotted together multiple times in recent months, including in London on de Armas' birthday April 30. In a photo and video captured by a bystander and shared on X, Cruise was seen wearing a white polo T-shirt with dark blue jeans while de Armas sported a light-colored T-shirt with jeans, white sneakers and a brown cross-body bag.
The day before de Armas' birthday, Cruise and the Cuba native were photographed as they disembarked a helicopter flown by the "Mission Impossible" star.
Two weeks earlier, the pair were spotted after another helicopter ride. On April 13, Cruise and de Armas exited the actor's helicopter in London that took off from Madrid, Spain.
At the time, a source told People the pair were not romantically involved and were accompanied on the trip by director Doug Liman. The group is reportedly working on a new project, but no additional information was provided.
Romance rumors began to swirl when de Armas and Cruise were photographed together for the first time the night before Valentine's Day in London.