Nicole Kidman is still supermodel gorgeous at age 51. Her new movie "Destroyer" can't quite erase her glamazon status, but it gets her closer to what a "real middle-aged woman" can look like, especially if she's had a tough life.

Here's the synopsis for director Karyn Kusama's new film:

"'Destroyer' follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past."

Vanity Fair shared the first photo of Nicole Kidman's Erin Bell:

 

Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight," "Jennifer's Body," "Æon Flux," "The Invitation") talked about the look they were going for:

"We always knew that what we wanted her to look like was a real middle-aged woman with a past that she wears on her face. With sun damage and sleep deprivation and stress and rage, just in her whole physical body."

But to portray that role, they didn't cast a woman who already looked all that. They went with Nicole Kidman -- because she's a great actress, and she does love to stretch beyond her good looks. (She got an Oscar for "The Hours," after a physical transformation. )

Kusama added that Kidman's character "wears her ugliness on the outside, all that smallness and bitterness." Not that she stays that way. Ultimately, the director said, "the character is so sort of tragic, and ultimately heroic."

"Destroyer" co-stars Tatiana Maslany, Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford, Toby Kebbell, Scoot McNairy, Beau Knapp, and Jade Pettyjohn. It will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and arrive in theaters December 25. Just in time for the 2019 Oscars.

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