Lars von Trier’s allegedly specific Nymphomaniac has been busy in its pre-production casting process, though the film just lost its first high-profile ensemble member … and it’s someone who actually worked with Von Trier in the past.
Buried near the bottom of a report in The Hollywood Reporter on the various actors joining Von Trier’s latest is the news nugget that Kidman “will not be a part of this movie,” perhaps because she’s too tied up playing Grace Kelly in Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco. Truthfully, I was waiting for marquee-type talents like Kidman to bail on Von Trier because, according to all reports, he wants explicit sex captured on screen for a potential hardcore cut of Nymphomaniac. Then again, Kidman was willing to urinate on Zac Efron for Lee Daniel’s The Paperboy, so maybe it really is a scheduling conflict and not a case of Kidman getting cold feet for the film’s frank sex scenes.
Who will Von Trier have in place of Kidman? THR says that the director’s frequent collaborators Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on board, with the latter playing Jo, a nymphomaniac reflecting on her past sexual conquests. Among the stranger casting selections for Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac include Christian Slater, Jamie Bell and Shia LaBeouf. But it’s not a sausage factory. Uma Thurman, Connie Nielsen, Kate Ashfield and Caroline Goodall will be representing the women alongside Gainsbourg.
But not Kidman, who collaborated with Von Trier on the intriguing Dogville but apparently won’t be returning for Nymphomaniac, for the time being.
