Nicole Kidman reveals she is training to become a ‘death doula’ to ‘provide solace and care’ to the dying | Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman has revealed her next role: a death doula.

The Australian actress revealed she is now training to be a death doula – professionals who provide emotional, physical and psychological support to the dying – while speaking at the University of San Francisco.

A doula, typically, is a professional who helps mothers during pregnancy and childbirth in a non-medical capacity. End-of-life doulas have become more popular in recent years — one was recently depicted in an episode of The Pitt — with some preferring the term “end-of-life doula.”

Kidman told the audience that the idea of ​​becoming a death doula came to her after her mother, Janelle Ann, died at the age of 84 in 2024.

“It might seem a little strange,” she admitted.

“When my mother was dying, she was alone, and there was only so much the family could save,” Kidman said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Between my sister and I, we have a lot of kids and our career and our job, and we want to take care of her because my father is no longer in the world, and that’s when I said, ‘I wish there were these people in the world who were there to sit neutrally and offer solace and care.’

“This is part of my expansion and one of the things I will learn,” she said.

In September 2024, Kidman won the Best Actress award for her role in the movie Babygirl at the Venice Film Festival, but she missed the ceremony to be with family when her mother died. Her father, Anthony, died in 2014.

Kidman isn’t alone in Hollywood: Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao also trained as a death doula, due to her fear of death.

“I’ve been terrified of death my whole life. I still am,” Zhao told the New York Times in January. Because I was so afraid, I couldn’t live fully… And because I’m so afraid of him, I have no choice but to start developing a healthy relationship with him, otherwise the second half of life will be very difficult. “It shouldn’t be so terrifying that I can’t live.”