Breaking Baz: Nicole Kidman Reveals The Secret Of Her Role In Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ Spy Action Thriller ‘Special Ops: Lioness’

EXCLUSIVE: Nicole Kidman hadn’t figured on taking an acting role in the latest entry in the Taylor Sheridan universe, Special Ops: Lioness. Then she got hooked.

“I’ve never done this,” the Oscar- and Emmy-winning star told me. “It was espionage and action,“ which was new territory for her, she explained.

Initially, Kidman had signed on as a producer, having been persuaded to do so by Chris McCarthy, president & CEO Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, and David Glasser, CEO and co-founder of 101 Studios. They’re both in the Taylor Sheridan business, having ushered in Yellowstone, 1883, 1923 and a host of other shows for Paramount+.  

Then she and Sheridan talked, then talked some more. Kidman’s an admirer of the script Sheridan penned for David Mackenzie’s beautifully realized film Hell or High Water. 

“I was like, “Maybe I could play a pivotal role,” stressing that it not be “a lead role” because of “just balancing life and profession,” a reference to her family life with her rocker husband rocker Keith Urban and their daughters Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

“But I knew that I wanted to produce it, and then Taylor and I kept talking. We worked on ideas and kept massaging it,” Kidman told me as waiters walked slowly past her to catch a glimpse of the star who had flown to London — “at the last minute,” she said — for the swanky launch party at the Tate Britain art gallery. Paramount+ and 101 Studios co-hosted a lavish soirée in another part of town last year. They hope that a Paramount+ summer bash will become an annual event.

The result of the many conversations between Kidman and Sheridan is a character called Kaitlyn Meade, a senior CIA operative who runs what’s known as the Lioness program that sends female operatives on undercover war on terror missions.

The eight-part series premieres July 23 on Paramount+ with two one-hour episodes; a new instalment will drop weekly thereafter.

Special Ops: Lioness, inspired by U.S. military efforts to combat terror, stars Zoe Saldaña (the Avatar: and Guardians of the Galaxy films) as Joe, a CIA operative who recruits women to participate in the program. One such is Cruz Manuelos, played with fierce energy by Laysla De Oliveira (Locke & Key).

Those two do much of the drama’s heavy lifting. “They take the reins,” is how Kidman put it. 

Morgan Freeman and David Kelly also star.

Before Cruz is accepted into the secret force, Joe asks if she has any tattoos and insists on her stripping to prove that she hasn’t any.

A tattoo could blow her cover.

It’s one of many details that had me absolutely riveted during a gala screening of the first episode of Special Ops: Lioness at Tate Britain.

Seriously classy of Paramount+ to hold its event in one of the Tate’s galleries exhibiting works devoted to the radical Rossetti generation, through and beyond the pre-Raphaelite years.

Kidman eyed a few paintings but lamented that there wouldn’t be enough time to take in all of the art on display.

Cue cringe-making comment from yours truly, ”But you’re the art, Nicole.”

OK, shoot me.

The actress observed that working with Sheridan on this project was about “trying to create new things, new boundaries.”

It’s “very satisfying,” she said, to move into different territories and worlds “rather than the same world all the time,” adding that she believes in “just expanding instead of imploding.”      

Kidman said there’s a toughness to Special Ops: Lioness that reminded her of Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 thriller Sicario, set in the world of Mexican drug cartels. “It’s very much in that milieu,” she said. Although not in terms of where it’s set, she clarified.

She marveled at Sheridan’s willingness to “shape” the part for her.

“What’s fascinating about a lot of these women, and also people that work in the military, is their ability to handle stress and compartmentalize what they’re doing, and Kaitlyn is the person that can make decisions under duress with no sleep.

“She’s a leader,” the actress declared, proudly.

“But her emotional capacity is fully relegated to: what is the mission? How do I strategically forge the mission? Can we succeed? She’s 10 steps ahead, always 10 steps.”

That was a Eureka moment for Kidman. “As soon as I grasped that I was like, ‘Oh, OK!’“

She factored that Kaitlyn’s “not about feelings.”

There was a roar of laughter, ”which is the opposite to me!

“I feed off feelings,you know? Kaitlyn’s not that; she’s about the job at hand, which is the opposite to me.”

If you choose to be a tough nut at the CIA, that’s what you’re choosing, Kidman said. ”It’s obviously very different if you’re an actor because you’re choosing to be in the world as a sensorial creature.”

On that note, Kidman stepped back into the stiletto-heeled shoes she’d slipped off during her chat. “No spy would wear these,” she joked.

Feet firmly on the ground, in or out of heels, Kidman has a shrewd sense of what will work best for her — and others.

She’s ambitious for Special Ops: Lioness, as are McCarthy, Glasser and Keith Cox, President of Scripted at Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios.

As we navigated our way past guests having a jolly time guzzling champagne and grazing on lobster salad, Glasser recalled Sheridan calling him one night. ”He says ,’”’I got a new idea.’” 

“It’s an amazing process with Paramount,” Glasser explained. “He’ll call, pitch the idea. I’ll call Chris and Keith, and we all have a conversation and say, basically, ‘Taylor’s got this idea.’ He pitches it ,they say yes on the phone.”

McCarthy nodded his head in agreement. ”It was unbelievable. The three of us said yes on the phone.”

McCarthy observed that the show’s about “female warriors on the battlefield and off” — how they cope in the theater of war and on the home front.

Cox read Sheridan’s first two scripts and was so impressed that he asked him to write the whole series, even though Sheridan kept insisting that he was too busy. He wrote all eight films. By the way, I’m calling them “films” because of Glasser’s assertion that what they’re making are “one-hour films.”

Both McCarthy and Glasser told me that Lioness was the original title but adding in Special Ops would allow audiences to really recognize how unique these women are, and to understand that the Lioness program is a significant operation between the military and the CIA.

When I wondered if the show was a one-off series, Glasser didn’t miss a beat. “No, it’s an ongoing series,” adding that once the writers strike is over, Sheridan will write Season 2.

“There’s going to be a Special Ops universe,” McCarthy enthused.

Added Glasser: “It’s the beginning of a franchise, I hope.“