Nicole Kidman is known for her best films like Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge and The Hours but, in recent years, she has also become known for being memed on the internet. From her bizarre reaction to Tweety Bird being brought up on a podcast to her very earnest AMC commercials that have inspired Halloween costumes, Kidman is one of the internet’s favorite reaction GIFs. Now. she’s humorously discussing one of her most memed Oscars moments, and I love hearing her side of the story.
Kidman and Lioness co-star Zoe Saldaña recently sat down for a Lie Detector interview with Vanity Fair. While promoting the much-waited Lioness Season 3, the duo asked each other questions to get their full honest perspectives on their pop culture presences. Saldaña asked Kidman about the viral video of her awkwardly clapping at the Oscars, to which Kidman said she’d never used this popular clip in her own correspondence with her friends, yet did give some insight into why she was clapping like that. She said:
I’ve seen one where I was clapping at the Academy Awards like that and my hands were…. I’ve seen that and I was like, ‘Why am I clapping like that?’ But I had very expensive jewelry on and I didn’t want to destroy it.
For context, Kidman was spotted in the audience at the 2017 Oscars clapping for the performers with her fingers tilting out. Only her palms were making contact and many compared the awkward clap to a seal. She has talked about her clapping style before, but I love that it is still coming up even though it’s lived on the internet for years now. Even though Kidman might not use this GIF herself in her texts, many others do, and it’s still funny almost a decade later.
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Honestly, the reason for the seal clap makes complete sense. Oftentimes, at these events, celebrities are being loaned extremely expensive jewelry they have to return the next day, so it makes sense that you’d want to make sure not to damage the pieces.
Kidman being careful not to break anything is logical, however, without the context it just appears absolutely hilarious. Apparently, the moment even made her adjust her clapping strategy at these events, now going with more of a golf clap, saying:
Now, I do this [does different clap]. It’s far more polite. I was doing this [does original clip], not such a good look.
It’s almost unfortunate that the viral moment made Kidman correct, because there would be something even more hilarious about her continuing to clap like that at every event. However, we never seem to be short meme-able moments from the Babygirl star. It feels like every time she does press, she does something that goes viral, which is why we all love her so much. She is, after all, a naturally unique individual and, clearly, the internet-forward culture can’t get enough.
When Nicole Kidman isn’t being your new favorite reaction GIF, she is working nonstop. You can see her in the latest season of Lioness, which is currently streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. You can also see her in one of the buzziest movies on the 2026 film schedule, Practical Magic 2, which hits theaters on September 11th.