“Speaking of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ metaphor,” Robert Downey Jr. remarks, “Kidman really pulled one out of her hat. I’ve always admired her range and ability, but at some point during the shoot, I realized I was working with one of the smartest, most intuitive and technically proficient actresses in history. Easy on the eyes too, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

Kidman was equally impressed. “Robert was perfect for this film because he’s very seductive and he’s unpredictable. And he has the most beautiful eyes,” she marvels. “Robert’s eyes speak and he doesn’t really even need dialogue. And I think that’s unusual for him because a lot of the time when he’s performing --and he has said this himself --he’s verbose. He’s very, very smart and able to, I suppose, create a really wonderful tangled web. But in this film he’s left with very little to say, just his heart and his presence. And he was very open towards me, which I still appreciate because it was extremely necessary for a film like FUR. I feel glad I had the chance to work with him because he truly is an original.”

She was just as gratified by her collaboration with Shainberg, which started with a series of phone conversations they had prior to her arrival in New York. “We talked about ourselves; we kind of revealed things,” recalls Kidman. “So there was an intimacy created before we started the film. I found him warm, kind, exciting and very stimulating. Steven has such a strong vision of what he wants and yet he allows you to sort of blossom within that.”

Says Downey, “You gotta love Shainberg --he’s insanely passionate, very prepared, quirky and fun. He has a way of winning your confidence. This was a very ambitious and risky project, and I couldn’t imagine having done it with anyone but him and Nicole. Our collaboration was at times intense, easygoing, fraternal and exacting.”

Concludes Shainberg, “We all cared a lot about this film. We all wanted to in some sense honor the photographer that we loved, the Arbus that we loved.”