Director Karyn Kusama’s excellent new crime drama, “Destroyer,” tells the story of Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman), an LAPD officer and mother who endured* a traumatic* experience working undercover inside a dangerous California gang operating in a desolate* desert community. The film covers two different eras in Bell’s life: time spent with the gang, shown via flashback, and her bleak* present days.

The years haven’t been kind to the latter-day Bell, leaving her looking hollow and battered by the sun, in desperate need of sleep and hydration. Of course, the radiant Nicole Kidman is quite different-looking from the character she inhabits in the film. To achieve a believable transformation from Hollywood star to hard-boiled cop, Kusama and Kidman collaborated with Oscar-winning makeup designer Bill Corso.

“A lot of real people don’t wear sunscreen,” Kusama pointed out to Yahoo Entertainment when asked what informed the look of Bell. “They just don’t bother. They don’t wear hats, they don’t wear sunglasses. Frankly, I don’t.”

“I do,” interjected Kidman.

“So it’s not that extreme,” Kidman added. “We don’t see it as that extreme.”

“It’s extremely different from how you look now,” Kusama pointed out.

Kidman explained that it’s “my job as an actor, to not be attached to my own physical form and to be absolutely a blank canvas,” which is how she embraced the character.

(SD-Agencies)