Nicole Kidman Misses Oscar Nominees' Luncheon Due to a Torn Hamstring

Being the Ricardos star Nicole Kidman, who received her fifth overall Academy Award nomination for her role in the biopic, was absent from the star-studded event held in Los Angeles on Monday

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Published on March 7, 2022 09:50 PM

Nicole Kidman is doing just fine after she was noticeably absent from the annual Oscar nominees' luncheon on Monday.

Kidman, 54, who received her fifth overall Academy Award nomination for her performance as Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, missed the event at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles because she's back home in Nashville recovering from a torn hamstring — and old injury that flared up while she was filming Amazon Prime Video's upcoming drama series Expats this week — Variety reports.

A source confirms to PEOPLE that the award-winning actress is okay and is just taking it easy as she recovers, per doctor's orders.

Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos is nominated for a total of three Academy Awards at this year's award show. Kidman is up for Best Actress in a Leading Role, while costar Javier Bardem is in the running for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

J.K. Simmons rounds out the nominations with his bid for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of actor William Frawley.

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Nicole Kidman — Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

While speaking with PEOPLE about the biopic, which explores the dramatic professional and personal lives of Ball and Desi Arnaz, the film's costume designer, Susan Lyall, opened up about the intense process of recreating the on-screen looks for the characters.

"I might have watched the Fred and Ethel Fight episode, in its entirety, maybe 15 times and then kept freezing frame and moving in closer and trying to suss out every detail of the costume, and the same with Lucy," said Lyall. "I watched the grape stomping [scene] over and over and over again, to get every detail correct in order to recreate it exactly."

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"The second step was to learn about Lucille and Desi and their story, not just their characters, but who they were as people and as a couple and as a marriage and as professionals and business people and artists, and all of those things that makes for this very, very complex duo," Lyall explained, adding that she read Ball's autobiography Love, Lucy cover to cover and marked every little important detail while reading it.

In November last year, Sorkin, who wrote and directed the film, defended his decision to cast both Kidman and Bardem, 53, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"We made this movie during COVID, and so in Zooming with Nicole and Javier and everyone else, I'd make it very clear to them that I am not looking for a physical or vocal impersonation of these people," he said.

Sorkin also explained how the movie shows a broader portrayal of Ball and Arnaz's life together, with "less than three minutes" of screen time showing Kidman as Ball performing on the sitcom I Love Lucy.

"So, finding an actress who looked like Lucille Ball wasn't important to me, especially because I was excited by the idea that Lucille Ball doesn't look like Lucille Ball — and that every time we're seeing Lucille Ball not as Lucy Ricardo, she should both literally and metaphorically let her hair down," he explained. "Let her be what she's not allowed to be on TV in 1952 on CBS. Let her be a woman. Let her be sexy. You weren't allowed to be sexy on TV."