Nicole Kidman on Adopted Children: “When You Have Good Love Like That, You Flourish”

It wasn’t long before Nicole Kidman, the mother of two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, was asked Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival about playing one half of a true-life Australian couple who adopt a 5-year-old street kid from Calcutta in the Weinstein Company pic Lion.

“For me, this is a film about the power of mothers, whichever form they come in, whether or biological or adoptive,” the actress told a press conference for director Garth Davis’ biopic that also stars Dev Patel and Rooney Mara. The drama based on Saroo Brierley’s memoir A Long Way Home also portrays Patel as an adult setting out to find his lost family in India.

“When you have good love like that, you flourish. However it comes your way, it comes. So it’s obviously emotional for me,” added Kidman.

Patel told the Bell Lightbox presser that researching his role in Lion took him to a region of India where severely disabled children are adopted out to overseas families.

“They mostly go to America or Australia. I was just astounded by that fact, that someone would take that into their lives, and give someone a great life and an opportunity. I think it’s just beautiful,” he said.

TIFF continues through Sept. 18.