This story originally appeared on Them.
Not every transgender woman is good at makeup. I have hundreds of failed eyeliner attempts to prove it — and the only times I’ve pulled off a full face in recent memory have been with transmasc assistance in a sort of gender knowledge swap arrangement.
But it’s an open secret that many trans women do excel at cosmetics — whether out of necessity, passion, or oftentimes both — and have quickly become sought-after makeup artists in Hollywood. If you’re watching any given red carpet, you can safely bet a doll was involved in shaping at least one star’s look. And even when the involvement isn’t quite that direct, there’s no denying that drag artists and trans people are often the originators of the makeup looks that cisgender women later adopt.
As it turns out, though, Nicole Kidman went straight to the source.
In a new profile for British Vogue, the star of Moulin Rouge — and roughly one million prestige streaming shows — said that she learned her makeup directly from trans women. “I’ve said it before but I used to go to trans clubs. That’s where I learnt to do my hair and makeup,” she said. “I would sit down as a little freckled-faced red-headed girl and they would make me beautiful.”
And apparently Kidman feels quite passionately about the subject, because she gave the magazine a lengthy description of getting the full Princess Diaries treatment. “They would do my lashes and straighten my hair and put hairpieces on me and makeup,” she said. “I would walk out of there and I would feel pretty. I would feel like I was transformed.”
Not too take too much credit, but the continuation of her quote kind of makes it sound like those makeover experiences were one of the catalysts for Kidman’s entire illustrious career: “And so that’s probably where it all started for me – clothes and make-up and hair – and then all of it mixed with studying literature and loving acting.”
I, for one, would like to find the trans women partially responsible for such cinematic classics as To Die For, Practical Magic, and — don’t judge me — Batman Forever. I would thank them for shaping one of the motheriest mothers to ever mother, of course, but mostly I would ask them to help me figure out how to use an eyelash curler.
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