Nicole Kidman Inspired to Become Death Doula by Mother’s Passing

Nicole Kidman is preparing to help usher people into death.

At a recent talk at the University of San Francisco, the actress revealed that she’s training to be a death doula, a non-medical support figure who helps people cope with dying.

She said she was inspired to become a doula for the end of people’s lives after witnessing her mother’s final days at the age of 84 in 2024. Kidman’s father died in 2014.

“As my mother was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide,” Kidman said at the university’s Silk Speakers series, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. “Between my sister and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work, and wanting to take care of her because my father wasn’t in the world anymore, and that’s when I went, ‘I wish there was these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care.’”

Kidman recently starred in Apple TV’s Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Amazon’s crime drama Scarpetta. She will also reprise her role as Gillian Owens in Practical Magic 2, a sequel to the 1998 film of the same name based on the novel by Alice Hoffman. The sequel, also based on Hoffman’s writing, is due to arrive on screens in September.