Watch Nicole Kidman Get Real About Ageism In Her Invigorating SAGs Speech

Nicole Kidman (rightly!) won a Screen Actors Guild Award at the 2018 ceremony for her amazing Big Little Lies (set decoration: Amy Wells) performance. In her acceptance speech for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor In A Television Movie or Miniseries, Nicole Kidman spoke about ageism in the entertainment industry and highlighted many of her fellow performers for persevering in a field that can be dismissive and unkind to women over 40.

Kidman, who was dealing with a bout of the flu, talked about how wonderful it was for her to receive the award — her first SAG Award ever — at “this stage in my life," bringing up an issue that’s plagued Hollywood for a while. After thanking her Big Little Lies costars and fellow nominees in the category, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, she went on to highlight the accomplishments of many other established female actors within the industry.

She then named Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange, who were also nominees, along with many actors such as Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, and Shirley MacLaine as trailblazers. "How wonderful it is that our careers today can go beyond 40 years old," Kidman said, pointing out how Hollywood's entrenched preference for younger women used to severely limit the number of roles women could play as they aged.

Still, there's a ways to go until Hollywood learns to respect and represent more women over 40 — as multiple articles and studies have mentioned, there's a distressing age gap within Hollywood when it comes to representation. As Time notes, while women do receive more roles than men when they're younger, that statistic is flipped as female actors age past 30. At 30 years old, male actors see an increase in roles, whereas their female counterparts actually encounter far fewer.

So it was especially heartening to see Kidman not only acknowledge this issue but to also praise her fellow actors, who have done such great work in the industry.

Kidman continued: "And these actresses, and so many more, are proving that we are potent and powerful and viable. I just beg that the industry stays behind us because our stories are finally being told. It's only the beginning and I'm so proud to be a part of a community that is instigating this change." Hopefully, Hollywood is taking note of Kidman's speech here. Representation, as always, is so necessary within the entertainment industry.

This isn't the first time Kidman has touched on these sentiments. At the 2017 Emmy Awards, Kidman noted in her acceptance speech for Outstanding Actress In A Limited Series that her friendship with her co-stars Reese Witherspoon, who also executive produced Big Little Lies, and Laura Dern helped her take control of the types of roles she was being offered. "This is a friendship that created opportunities out of a frustration because we weren't getting offered great roles," she said. "So now, more great roles for women, please."

Many were in agreement with Kidman's speech and her call for more representation within the industry, and they weren't afraid to praise her on Twitter during the awards show.

Happy Reacts Only

One user was so happy to see Kidman praising her fellow actors in her speech. And their gif usage of SAG host Kristen Bell was all too appropriate.

A Beautiful Speech

Another user noted that this was indeed Kidman's first SAG win (which is unbelievable in and of itself) and called her speech "beautiful." They're not wrong.

A Powerful Woman

Journalist Lisa Guerrero noted that Kidman gave such a great speech while battling the flu. Basically, Kidman is the definition of amazing.