Nicole Kidmans Surprising AMC Advert Payday Revealed

made headlines in 2021 when she . 

The Australian actress, 58, racked up 1.7 million views on for the clip, which was filmed as part of the company's $25+ million multimedia marketing campaign to get people back into the cinema after the pandemic.

Now, five years later during an interview on The Tonight Show with , Nicole has revealed the shocking amount she was paid to star in the viral advertisement - absolutely nothing. 

'The weirdest thing about that… I had no idea that thing was gonna work. We did it out of the purest intentions,' she said of the ad.

Nicole went on to say she 'called in all these favours' to help AMC film the marketing campaign, reaching out to writer Billy Ray and director Jeff Cronenweth, hoping the project would help struggling cinemas during the pandemic. 

'It was during Covid when we did it, and the crew that I was working with on Being the Ricardos, I said, "Would you guys be willing to do this?"' Nicole recalled. 

'And Jeff Cronenweth, who was the DP, he said, 'I'll direct it.' [I] called in all these favours... We did it for nothing. And then it went off.'

The AMC ad features Nicole arriving at an AMC movie theatre and taking off the hood of her jacket as she takes a seat in the theatre to watch a movie.

The star describes the magic of watching a movie in the ad, which was played at the movies before a movie started.

The ad ended up becoming a viral meme, as viewers wondered why an ad encouraging people to go to the cinema was playing in the theatre when they were in fact already there. 

It came as quite the surprise when Nicole admitted she agreed not to be paid a dime for her appearance in the ad, as it was part of a larger, nationwide marketing campaign that reportedly set AMC back more than $25 million.  

The campaign included 'national television advertising across the United States', in what was described by AMC as the 'first national advertising program by a major theatrical exhibitor in the history of cinema'.

Nicole's TV commercial spots premiered on Sunday, September 12, 2021, while online and social media advertisements were launched on Wednesday, September 8.

Most of AMC's $25+ million in funding was 'spent on network television advertising', which was 'used in nine countries in Europe by AMC's Odeon Cinema Group'.