What Nicole Kidman's Face Is Telling You About Fillers

What Nicole Kidman's Face Is Telling You About Fillers

Have you ever watched someone on screen and felt like something was off, but couldn't figure out what? That feeling has a clinical explanation, and once you hear it, you'll never watch a celebrity interview the same way again.

That's exactly what happened to me and my colleague Margaret Sherman while watching Scarpetta on Netflix. What started as a casual conversation about two of our favorite actresses turned into one of the most honest discussions I've had about what injectables actually do to a face in motion.

There's one specific moment in the show that made everything click, and I walk through it in detail in the episode.

When the Face Stops Moving

"She has a lot of neurotoxin in her upper face. Her forehead does not move. Her eyebrows don't move. She has no crow's feet at all." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential

I've been staring at Nicole Kidman's face for eight episodes now. As a board-certified MD who has injected patients myself, I can tell you exactly what I'm seeing. That's a significant amount of neurotoxin for someone whose job is literally to convey emotion on camera.

I always tell my patients who perform: don't do this right before you go on stage or in front of a camera. Your normal facial expressions won't be there when you need them.

But there's something else going on with Nicole Kidman's face beyond the neurotoxin, something in her lower face that most people completely miss, and it's actually more telling than the frozen forehead.

What Filler Does That Nobody Warns You About

"Although filler doesn't paralyze anything, it does make your skin stiffer so it doesn't move as much. And then it can also change the way the skin does move." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential

Her lower face is where it gets tricky. With Nicole Kidman, her lips aren't dramatically overstuffed the way you see in extreme cases. But there's enough filler there that when she speaks, her lips move differently than they should.

It's subtle. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. We describe exactly what to look for, because this is something you can spot yourself before you ever book an appointment.

The Contrast Nobody Is Talking About

"I think making a big statement and not doing it, and still getting jobs, which is what Jamie Lee Curtis is doing right now, is just amazing kudos to her." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential

Jamie Lee Curtis is nine years older than Nicole Kidman. On screen together, Curtis is fully expressive, fully herself. Every emotion reads on her face. Kidman is smoother, but something is missing.

The role Nicole Kidman is playing in Scarpetta actually makes this contrast more complicated than it first appears, and Margaret raises a point about the characters themselves that I hadn't considered.

I have real empathy for both women. I don't know what pressures they face in Hollywood, and I wouldn't pretend to. But what I do know is what this contrast reveals about a choice every woman faces, famous or not, when she sits down in a med spa chair.

What You Can Do Instead

"If you want to have full facial expression, then injectables are not the way to go. You should really be focusing on RF microneedling and laser and skincare." — Dr. Kate Dee, Med Spa Confidential

I'm not famous and I'm not an actress. The pressures driving these decisions in Hollywood are real and I can't fully speak to them. What I can speak to is what I see in my own practice every day.

For most of my patients, RF microneedling, laser treatments, and a consistent skincare routine deliver real long-term results without sacrificing expression. I also share what I actually do on my own face in this episode, including one specific treatment decision I made recently that surprised even me.

Before Your Next Appointment

If watching Nicole Kidman in Scarpetta made you think twice about your next injectable appointment, that's worth paying attention to. The goal has never been to scare you away from treatments. It's to make sure you walk in knowing exactly what you're agreeing to.

In the full episode, Margaret and I also get into why upper eyelid surgery might be the one procedure most people overlook, what a facial plastic surgeon recently told me about facelifts that genuinely surprised me, and the single question you should ask your injector before you say yes to anything.

Listen to the full episode of Med Spa Confidential and learn what your face might be trying to tell you.

Episode Transcripts:

[00:00:00] Dr. Kate Dee: You look at Nicole Kidman in this show. And unlike a lot of her other shows, she's done a ton of work, right?

[00:00:05] Dr. Kate Dee: Hi, I'm Dr. Kate d and I'm talking today with my friend and colleague, Margaret Sherman. She's been working on the med spa board with me, and this topic came up in the middle of talking about other things and um, and I thought this would be a really great conversation to talk about Scarpetta and the, my two of my favorite actresses on that show and, and what's going on with their [00:00:30] skincare.

[00:00:30] Dr. Kate Dee: Margaret, like, thanks for talking to me about this on the podcast. Can you, can you tell me like, what was the original question that came up that started this whole conversation?

[00:00:41] Margaret: Yeah, so, I, I was watching the show and I love Jamie Lee Curtis and I love Nicole Kidman. They're both amazing actresses and, Leaders in all things female empowerment. But what I found really interesting about the show is they're supposed to be sisters and Jamie Lee Curtis is kind of famous for not doing a [00:01:00] lot of, you know, med spa type work on herself.

[00:01:04] Margaret: and then, um, Nicole Kidman has obviously had a lot of work done, and so that contrast was. I think made Nicole Kimmons work stand out a lot more, but it also, I noticed that her, her face just didn't look like her and it, it just seemed really like it didn't move and I was just, I couldn't figure out what was different.

[00:01:27] Margaret: Even looking at photos like side by side.

[00:01:29] Dr. Kate Dee: [00:01:30] Right. Yeah. And, and of course I hadn't seen the show yet. So I thought, okay, I'll just watch 10 minutes of it. And, you know, I'll just like assess like, what's going on, why, why is Margaret confused? And then of course I got sucked in. So it was a really great show.

[00:01:45] Dr. Kate Dee: read the books. The books are amazing.

[00:01:47] Dr. Kate Dee: so the deal is they play sisters and in real life. Nicole Kidman is exactly my age. She's 58 and Jamie Lee Curtis is 67, so she's nine years older [00:02:00] than, than Nicole Kidman. And they look super different on the show. And Ja, I mean, they are both absolutely stunningly gorgeous.

[00:02:08] Dr. Kate Dee: Um, but it's a very stark contrast and you can stare at them and think, well, oh my gosh, like they're two actresses. who are yeah, ballpark the same era. So what's going on? So it's, it's pretty clear that, that Jamie Lee Curtis doesn't, doesn't do much. She, she does not look like she has any kind of injectables.

[00:02:27] Dr. Kate Dee: I don't know if she, what kind of skincare she uses, but [00:02:30] you know, she clearly, her, her facial expressions are full, right? whereas you look at Nicole Kidman in this show. And unlike a lot of her other shows, she's done a ton of work, right? Recently she's been at a ton of series. but in this show, her, her face really doesn't move.

[00:02:45] Dr. Kate Dee: And I was, I've been staring at her face now for like eight episodes. So basically, from what I can tell, she has a lot of neurotoxin in her upper face, so her forehead does not move. Her eyebrows don't move her glabella, the [00:03:00] elevens do not move.and she has no crow's feet at all. So, That's a lot for someone who's acting. So like, usually, I mean, I've injected actors and, uh, no one famous, okay, so just like local people here in Seattle. But like, you know, I always tell them like, don't do this right before you're performing. You, you won't be able to use your normal facial expressions, right?

[00:03:20] Dr. Kate Dee: and but anyway, so she, she's clearly full on frozen in her upper face. And then the weird thing though is her lower face also does not [00:03:30] move.much. and when she talks, her lips are really noticeable to me anyway. And I think what happened is she's had a fair amount of filler put in there, and although filler doesn't paralyze anything, it's just taking up space.

[00:03:45] Dr. Kate Dee: It does make your skin stiffer so it doesn't move as much. And then it can also change the way the skin does move if it is moving, like when you're talking. I think with Nicole Kidman, if you, if you just were [00:04:00] looking at a still image of her face, she would look phenomenally beautiful. but the fact that dynamically, it doesn't look quite right.

[00:04:06] Dr. Kate Dee: I kept staring at her lips because although her lips aren't super overstuffed the way a lot of people are out there, they're enough that it's altering the way her lips move when she's talking. And so I kept staring at that like, oh yeah, 'cause it just, it's just a little. When she's talking, it just juts out a little bit in the way that it doesn't normally when you talk.

[00:04:27] Dr. Kate Dee: And so, so, and it, [00:04:30] it just, it's very distracting, I think in the show. By the way, do not let this make you not watch the show. It's totally a fantastic show. and I just love these actresses and I think that, I don't know what kind of pressures they have, but I mean, I, I think that, interestingly in this particular show.

[00:04:48] Dr. Kate Dee: Nicole Kidman's playing, uh, a character who's a mature adult. She, I don't know, they don't really say what age they're supposed to be, right? but she could, she could clearly [00:05:00] look older in this. role. and that would be consistent with, you know, like with her character. but anyway, so I think that's what's happened.

[00:05:09] Dr. Kate Dee: I, she, to me, she doesn't, doesn't stand out like she's had surgery and stuff. She doesn't look like she has anything outrageous. but it's very noticeable that her skin is just not moving. Right. You know?

[00:05:22] Margaret: I mean, I was wondering if she had had a facelift or something because her skin is just like so completely smooth. Like no lines, [00:05:30] no wrinkles, like, and you know, as somebody who hasn't done nothing to my face,

[00:05:35] Dr. Kate Dee: it's, and that's very

[00:05:37] Margaret: wrinkles since I was in the twenties, you know, so.

[00:05:39] Dr. Kate Dee: Well, I mean the, I mean, I don't know what the screen does for that and, you know, makeup and stuff. I mean, you and I are not makeup wearers. Right. And although I've got. I'm, I'm like maybe nine or 10 years older than you. Right. and, and so, you know, for people like obviously our, [00:06:00] you know, my bent in the industry is very much to help people look natural and just like their normal selves, just as best po you know, presentation, they can given their skin.

[00:06:12] Dr. Kate Dee: So like I, you know, I have no filler in my face. I do do Dysport for here in my crow's feet, although I can't remember exactly when I did that. That might be half worn

[00:06:22] Margaret: is that? Is that like Botox or

[00:06:23] Dr. Kate Dee: like Botox. Yeah. And, and so, but like I can move it, you know, I can move my eyebrows. Nicole Kidman does [00:06:30] not move her eyebrows in the show.

[00:06:32] Dr. Kate Dee: and it is really in stark contrast with, with Jamie Lee because Jamie Lee Curtis is so expressive. If anyone has seen her in any of her recent work, whether it was everything everywhere, you know, the movie, or in the Bear or in Scarpetta, like she is incredibly expression, full expression, expressible.

[00:06:55] Dr. Kate Dee: Uh, she's very expressive. Sorry. She's very expressive in these shows, and it's just, you know, I [00:07:00] mean, it's, it's. I think she's a great actress. and clearly her face is, is fully moving, you know? and so it is a little distracting. Right. And their contrast is really, I, I, I think that it's, it's rough for women in general, as we get older trying to continue to work, to get, to get jobs.

[00:07:20] Dr. Kate Dee: I mean, even like we actually see a lot of women in their forties and fifties. Reentering the workplace, or, you know, with all the tech [00:07:30] layoffs here in Seattle where everybody's tech, you know, they're trying to get another job at this stage, and it's really difficult and there's so much pressure to just look a little younger, you know?

[00:07:39] Dr. Kate Dee: and in my opinion, you can actually do that without doing anything drastic. I mean, I, I don't know how I look anymore, but, um, but. You know, in general you can put your, you know, best skin forward, right? Like, it's, it's, um, it's possible without doing too much and without looking weird. Um, but that's what I think is [00:08:00] happening, on that show.

[00:08:01] Dr. Kate Dee: And I, I think that, making a big statement and not doing it, and still getting jobs, which is what Jamie Lee Curtis is. Is doing right now is just amazing kudos to her because, you know, our society put puts so much pressure on, on that appearance. Um, so I think Nicole Kidman would look phenomenal without all of that stuff.

[00:08:26] Margaret: I think. a hundred percent.

[00:08:27] Dr. Kate Dee: yeah, she's, I mean, she's such a beautiful [00:08:30] human.

[00:08:30] Margaret: I'm sure she gets a ton of pressure. I can't imagine that, you know, anybody in Hollywood isn't because just the regular folks, you know, as we age, were under women especially, were under pressure. it was, it was particularly interesting to me because I'd read the books and so for the characters, like I felt like the sister character.

[00:08:48] Margaret: Would've been the one, 'cause she was so vain and you know, all about her appearance and money, that she would've been the one to have a lot of work done

[00:08:56] Dr. Kate Dee: Right. We don't wanna give any spoilers away here about the [00:09:00] show 'cause. Because it was so good. But yeah, I mean, when they were, when they were younger and she still, she has a consistent character. At least Jamie Lee's character does have a really great arc and, you know, things are happening. We don't wanna give anything away.

[00:09:14] Dr. Kate Dee: But, it, I think it was definitely, it really good study and contrasts, uh, between, you know, even though Jamie Lee is, is, has got nine years. So, but

[00:09:26] Margaret: a lot at that age, honestly, like, you know, [00:09:30] your, I think your

[00:09:30] Dr. Kate Dee: Yeah, I mean, talk to me in nine years and I'll be able, let's take a picture today, then nine years from now, picture, and then that'll be the difference between, you know, 58 and 67. yeah, I, I think that it's, it's rough. I, I don't know whether she's had any surgery and I, I, I, I wouldn't put it past anyone to have eye surgery.

[00:09:50] Dr. Kate Dee: I think that that's like the. The easiest thing to do, um, that I find,

[00:09:56] Margaret: your lid off of? 'cause

[00:09:58] Dr. Kate Dee: well, yeah, so I'm [00:10:00] getting older. I'm getting it when my eyes are all the way open, I get quite the hood. and so the upper lids are kind of an easy, easy surgery to do. The lower lids actually a way bigger deal. So, that, you know, in my opinion, upper lids are.

[00:10:15] Dr. Kate Dee: Is kind of like, you know, a, very, very low risk. So very little can go wrong. It's a pretty easy surgery and, and people recover very quickly. The, the lowers, that's a way bigger deal. And then of course, facelifts are also a way bigger deal. I am gonna [00:10:30] interview soon a, a facial plastic surgeon who, is gonna talk about the different kinds of facelifts and, and the risks involved because it's quite, there's quite a debate out there apparently in the, uh, plastic surgery world.

[00:10:44] Dr. Kate Dee: so, and I'm not an expert in that. but, and I think that it's can be quite difficult to. Pinpoint exactly what somebody's had done or, you know, I do think though that if you want to have full facial expression, [00:11:00] then injectables are not the way to go. Right? You should really be focusing on, RF, microneedling and laser and skincare, which is, you know, mostly what I do.

[00:11:09] Dr. Kate Dee: But, you know, I'm also not famous and not an actress. But anyway, so for everyone who's watching this or listening, highly recommend Scarpetta. really fun show, and I'm really hoping, to be able to watch the seconds. I, I think they're gonna make a second season.

[00:11:25] Margaret: I feel like they have to too. I mean, and the, and, Patricia Cornwell wrote, [00:11:30] I think over 20 books in this series or something like that. So,

[00:11:33] Dr. Kate Dee: So they've got a lot of material.

[00:11:34] Margaret: there's a lot of material. Yeah.

[00:11:37] Speaker 2: right. Well, Margaret, thanks for talking to me about this. It's been really fun If you found this helpful, do me a favor and share it with a friend who's considering any aesthetic treatments. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one and drop a comment telling me your biggest takeaway. I actually read them all. Let's keep each other safe and elevate the standards in the MedSpa industry.