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Read Every Word of Nicole Kidman's 2018 SAG Awards Speech on Aging in Hollywood


Nicole Kidman has won many awards over her illustrious 35-year acting career, including an Oscar, two Emmys, and four Golden Globes (as well as being honored as a 2017 Glamour Woman of the Year)—but never a SAG Award, despite being nominated nine times since 2001. It appears that the tenth time was the charm, though, as Kidman picked up her very first Screen Actors Guild at the 2018 awards ceremony for her portrayal of domestic abuse survivor Celeste in HBO’s Big Little Lies—while fighting the flu and zero sleep, no less.

“I was working until 1 A.M.—which is a fantastic blessing—last night, but I have the flu and I’m playing a pretty out-there role right now, so I have had a little trouble shedding it,” Kidman said through tears as she accepted the award. “But I’m here and I’m incredibly grateful.”

And despite being ill and exhausted, Kidman still seized the opportunity to deliver a passionate and powerful speech, calling attention to the important shifts towards equality happening in Hollywood and imploring for change to continue. But while her Golden Globes acceptance speech focused more on standing up to abuse of any kind, Kidman used her SAG Awards speech to highlight equal opportunities for women, no matter their age.

“To receive this at this stage in my life is extraordinary,” Kidman said, referencing winning her first SAG Award at age 50. She continued on to cite numerous actresses who have inspired her throughout her career (including fellow nominees Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange). “I want to thank you all for your trailblazing performances you have given over your career, and how wonderful it is that our careers can go beyond 40 years old,” she said.

“Twenty years ago, we were pretty washed up by this stage in our lives,” Kidman added. “That’s not the case now. We have proven…and so many more are proving that we are potent and powerful and viable. I just beg that the industry stays behind us, because our stories are finally being told. It’s only the beginning, and I’m so proud to be a part of a community that is instigating this change.”

Read the speech in its entirety below:

“Oh, wow! Yikes! I’m crying. It means a lot to me. I have been working since I was 14 years old. Thank you, SAG AFTRA, for giving me something incredibly nervous. This is reality colliding with fantasy right now. I was working until 1:00 A.M—which is a fantastic blessing—last night, but I have the flu and I’m playing a pretty out there role character right now, so I have had a little trouble shedding it, but I’m here and I’m incredibly grateful.

To receive this at this stage in my life is extraordinary and at this time in the industry when these things are going on and for this role. I would like to acknowledge the other actresses in this category, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, my girlfriends, first and foremost, my beyond talented acting partners, I share this with you. And also I want to say Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, I revere you, I watched you and I have learned from you and there are others, Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Judy Davis, Shirley Mcclain, Judi Dench, the list is so long.

I would like to say so many names, I can’t right now. I want to thank you all for your trail blazing performances you have given over your career and how wonderful it is that our careers today can go beyond 40 years old. Twenty years ago, we were pretty washed up by this stage in our lives, so that’s not the case now. We have proven and these actresses and so many more are proving that we are potent and powerful and viable. I just beg that the industry stays behind us because our stories are finally being told. It’s only the beginning and I’m so proud to be a part of a community that is instigating this change, but I applaud the writers, directors, and financiers behind our stories. We can continue to do this but only with the support of the industry and that money and passion. Also, I do have trail blazers in my life, Chris, Leslie, Katie, Miranda, lizzy, to my family, I’m nothing without you. Thank you to all of the actors that gave me the chance to say this.”

Related: Nicole Kidman’s Golden Globes Speech Was All About the ‘Power of Women’





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All the Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018


If 2017 was the year of learning how bad things are, let’s make 2018 the year we started to fix them—armed with a syllabus of inspiring, empowering, funny, and transporting new works from our favorite female writers. The nonfiction will feed your mind; the novels will feed your heart and soul. Read on for 20 books we can’t wait to read in 2018.



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The Senate Passed a Major Tax Bill So Hurriedly Some Senators Couldn't Even Read It All


In the early hours of Saturday morning, the U.S. Senate voted on a new, highly contentious tax bill known as the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The $1.5-trillion tax bill is set to give massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans alongside uncertain benefits for the middle class, according to the Washington Post. However, some Democrats are crying foul over the process by which the bill was passed: When amendments to the Republican-led bill surfaced, the information didn’t go directly to the Democratic senators, according to the New York Times. Instead, those senators got wind of changes from K Street lobbyists.

Senators turned to social media to express their anger at how they had to catch wind of changes, the state the 479-page bill was in when they eventually received it, and the fact that they had just a few short hours to read the missive before the vote.

“This is so bad. We have just gotten list of amendments to be included in bill NOT from our R colleagues, but from lobbyists downtown,” Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri tweeted, “None of us have seen this list, but lobbyists have it. Need I say more? Disgusting. And we probably will not even be given time to read them.”

Six hours after her initial tweet, McCaskill posted a photo of a page of the bill, which she and her Democratic colleagues had by then obtained—according to USA Today, major changes were unveiled around 7 P.M. Friday evening. The nearly 500-word text was filled with sometimes-illegible handwritten amendments in the margins.

“I defy any member of the Senate to stand here and take an oath that they have read this and understand what in the world it means to businesses and families and individuals,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said.

McCaskill also tweeted saying that Democratic senators had asked if they could adjourn on Monday so everyone could study the bill, but the request was denied.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts posted a video of herself trying to decipher the handwriting on one of the pages. The Massachusetts Democrat was unable to read everything. “I just want to give you an idea of how the Republican leadership thinks we’re supposed to make laws in the United States Senate,” she said.

Other senators also posted images of the scrawl-filled bill on Twitter, explaining their disappointment in the process.

The bill eventually passed 51 to 49, with a winning margin of one vote (Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee voted against the bill due to concerns over its effect on the deficit). However, the saga isn’t over yet: Because of all the differences between this bill and the version that passed in the House of Representatives about two weeks ago, it’s being sent back to a joint committee, who will “iron out an agreement” between the two versions, according to USA Today. From there, both the House and the Senate will have to vote on identical copies of the bill.

Related Stories:
–More Than 11,000 Democratic Women Are Interested in Running for Office So Far This Year
–One Muslim Girl on What It’s Like to Live in Trump’s America
–This Michigan Politician Might Have Just Created the Best Campaign Ad of All Time





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Read Kathryn Hahn's Letter to Her Sexual Self


On I Love Dick, the boundary-pushing Amazon series, Kathryn Hahn plays Chris Kraus, a filmmaker consumed by her lust for a cowboy named Dick (Kevin Bacon). To indulge her desire, Chris writes a series of explicit letters, each of which begins the same way: “Dear Dick.” Hahn, 44, has made her career playing supporting characters (Bad Moms, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), but as Chris, she is a one-woman sexual revolution. Here the Emmy-nominated actress (who also starred in Transparent) pens a love letter to herself.

Dear Kathryn,

One day you will become an adult. A sexual adult. A fearless performer. And an unabashed lover of your own body. But it won’t happen overnight.

You will grow up the only daughter in a family of beautiful and dysfunctional boys. You will attend an all-girls Catholic school and wear a little bride’s dress to marry Jesus at your First Communion. You will find your husband, Jesus, to be very attractive. In the third grade, when you and your friends are walking home from school, a grown man will flash you. You’ll all laugh as it’s happening, but then burst into hysterical tears. When you go to your friend’s house and play “marriage,” you’ll always play the husband. That way you get to be the one with the dick.

At 13 you will draw a picture of yourself in pencil in your diary. (You will keep a diary because you will have a need to put your thoughts down, to express your innermost everything.) You will point out all the physical negatives: your pointy boobs, zits, huge nose, stringy hair. So much of your shame will come from your physical self—and your relationships with other girls. You will have friends who betray you at every turn, and that betrayal will feel so real and deep and physical. When you get your period, one friend will be so jealous that she will convince you (and a bunch of other people) that you got it only because you fell on the bar of a boy’s bike.

In high school you will learn how to compartmentalize your sexuality, how to put a lid on it. Though you won’t actually touch anyone else until the summer after senior year, you’ll be a chronic masturbator. It will be a deep, weird secret that is also awesome and private and yours.

The first time you will feel sexy will be in college. You will wear a black leotard, a tartan kilt, Doc Martens boots, and a headband, and people will start looking at you differently. And you will admit to yourself: This doesn’t feel bad. Still, you will spend so much time feeling messy. You will spend so much time comparing yourself with others and trying to be articulate, knowing that you’re smarter than the words coming out of your mouth, that you are smarter than the guy you’re obsessed with. Before you meet your husband, you will be with someone incredibly powerful. He will be an asshole, and you won’t share the same politics. You will think to yourself, God, I can’t stand him. You will want his attention and validation—badly. You will think to yourself, I wish I could wear that f-cker’s power.

You will become an actor. In your work you will be much braver than you are in your day-to-day life. The mind-body connection will become clearer to you, and you will use it to get into the guts of each character. You will share scenes with people who are un­­inhibited. You will find joy in knowing that the people behind the camera are looking at you with such empathy and such faith. You will learn to love that feeling of jumping off a cliff into your bravest self. You will use your personal experiences to bring heat to your performances. And you will hunger for that outlet.

You will grow to be so grateful for—and so in love with—your body. Having children will help with that, because it will show you what you are capable of. You will thank your belly for growing them and your breasts for feeding them. You will want to find the girl who drew that picture in her diary and hug her so tightly. You will look back and be so mad you said yes to that bleach job for that gig, so glad you never got a nose job.

At 44, you will realize something astounding: Life just gets sexier and sexier. Your sexual self will become this enormous, loud thing that you no longer take for granted, no ­longer deny. You will refuse to put a lid on it. You will listen to it. My God, you will hear it roar.

Love,
Kathryn

Kathryn Hahn stars in I Love Dick and A Bad Moms Christmas, out in November.



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