reality.
Nicole’s romance with Tom began on a Daytona racetrack, where their emotions was jacked up by the addictive adrenaline rush of mind-numbing speed—and it continued that way well into their marriage. From race cars, they moved to skydiving, and then to airplanes, perhaps Tom’s biggest passion, and then on to daredevil combinations such as wing walking.
Always, it was about the speed, and about putting everything on the line. Tom loves to fly, especially the two-seat biplane, the wing of which Nicole used as a platform for her arabesque. His favorite maneuver is a Cuban Eight, in which he puts the plane into a dive, flying straight to the ground—only pulling up at the last minute.
Nicole adored that dangerous quality in Tom—it was so like her mother and so unlike her father—and she made an effort to be at his side whenever he went on a thrill- seeking mission. Asked by Rolling Stone if she felt frightened when doing daredevil stunts, she said: “That’s the point. Sure, I worry about dying, but that’s part of the adrenaline rush. Your whole body is resisting, saying, ‘No, no, no, this isn’t right.’ But you do it anyway. It sounds mad.”
When Nicole and Tom first met, the attraction was purely physical, a chemical reaction pure and simple. It was only later that they realized how similar they really were. Nicole had always been a daredevil, willing to try anything, whether it involved wrapping killer snakes around her neck, or traveling halfway around the world to sample different cultures. Dare her to do it, whatever the risk—and you could consider it done.
Of course, married life for Nicole that first year or two was not a constant roller coaster ride. They settled into a life of domestic normality that was almost sitcomish in its predictably. They vowed never to be apart for more than two weeks at a time and they made it a point to eat dinner with each other every day, no matter what was happening in their professional lives. Sundays became a day for family get-togethers, depending on where they were and who was available at the time. It was the day when Nicole did the cooking. Working in the kitchen was something that she enjoyed, something that kept her grounded and in touch with the real world.
Tom’s marriage to Nicole was very different from his marriage to Mimi, and those differences were due, in no small measure, to Nicole’s concept of marriage, a viewpoint influenced by her psychologist father, whether she realized it or not. Relationship parity is a must to Nicole—and it is no mystery where that belief came from.
We know what Nicole heard around the house with her parents because Antony aired his concepts of marriage in his self-help books. On the matter of parity, he once wrote: “Power and dependency are linked and in any relationship are determined by who controls the reinforcers or resources such as the material goods, the affection and the support. When these resources are roughly equal, the power balance in the relationship will be the same. When they are not, the partner who controls more of the desired resources will have more power in the relationship.”
Parity was not the only guiding principle in Nicole’s relationship with Tom. Another important belief is that couples should never take each other for granted. Shortly after they got married, Tom was astonished to learn that if he wanted Nicole to accompany him somewhere, he had to ask her out on a date. He could not assume that she always would be available. When she explained the “dating” procedure to him, he shook his head in amused disbelief. “You mean, you might turn me down?” he asked, to which she responded in her deep Aussie accent, “Yep!”
~ ~ ~
After Nicole completed work on Billy Bathgate , she and Tom looked around for another project they could do together. Producers jumped at the chance because the chemistry between the actors in Days of Thunder was palatable, there for everyone to
Nicole’s romance with Tom began on a Daytona racetrack, where their emotions was jacked up by the addictive adrenaline rush of mind-numbing speed—and it continued that way well into their marriage. From race cars, they moved to skydiving, and then to airplanes, perhaps Tom’s biggest passion, and then on to daredevil combinations such as wing walking.
Always, it was about the speed, and about putting everything on the line. Tom loves to fly, especially the two-seat biplane, the wing of which Nicole used as a platform for her arabesque. His favorite maneuver is a Cuban Eight, in which he puts the plane into a dive, flying straight to the ground—only pulling up at the last minute.
Nicole adored that dangerous quality in Tom—it was so like her mother and so unlike her father—and she made an effort to be at his side whenever he went on a thrill- seeking mission. Asked by Rolling Stone if she felt frightened when doing daredevil stunts, she said: “That’s the point. Sure, I worry about dying, but that’s part of the adrenaline rush. Your whole body is resisting, saying, ‘No, no, no, this isn’t right.’ But you do it anyway. It sounds mad.”
When Nicole and Tom first met, the attraction was purely physical, a chemical reaction pure and simple. It was only later that they realized how similar they really were. Nicole had always been a daredevil, willing to try anything, whether it involved wrapping killer snakes around her neck, or traveling halfway around the world to sample different cultures. Dare her to do it, whatever the risk—and you could consider it done.
Of course, married life for Nicole that first year or two was not a constant roller coaster ride. They settled into a life of domestic normality that was almost sitcomish in its predictably. They vowed never to be apart for more than two weeks at a time and they made it a point to eat dinner with each other every day, no matter what was happening in their professional lives. Sundays became a day for family get-togethers, depending on where they were and who was available at the time. It was the day when Nicole did the cooking. Working in the kitchen was something that she enjoyed, something that kept her grounded and in touch with the real world.
Tom’s marriage to Nicole was very different from his marriage to Mimi, and those differences were due, in no small measure, to Nicole’s concept of marriage, a viewpoint influenced by her psychologist father, whether she realized it or not. Relationship parity is a must to Nicole—and it is no mystery where that belief came from.
We know what Nicole heard around the house with her parents because Antony aired his concepts of marriage in his self-help books. On the matter of parity, he once wrote: “Power and dependency are linked and in any relationship are determined by who controls the reinforcers or resources such as the material goods, the affection and the support. When these resources are roughly equal, the power balance in the relationship will be the same. When they are not, the partner who controls more of the desired resources will have more power in the relationship.”
Parity was not the only guiding principle in Nicole’s relationship with Tom. Another important belief is that couples should never take each other for granted. Shortly after they got married, Tom was astonished to learn that if he wanted Nicole to accompany him somewhere, he had to ask her out on a date. He could not assume that she always would be available. When she explained the “dating” procedure to him, he shook his head in amused disbelief. “You mean, you might turn me down?” he asked, to which she responded in her deep Aussie accent, “Yep!”
~ ~ ~
After Nicole completed work on Billy Bathgate , she and Tom looked around for another project they could do together. Producers jumped at the chance because the chemistry between the actors in Days of Thunder was palatable, there for everyone to
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