Jimmy Fallon Reveals 'the Most Embarrassing' Part of His Failed Date with Nicole Kidman
Jimmy Fallon Reveals 'the Most Embarrassing' Part of His Failed Date with Nicole Kidman

Published: May 22, 2025

Jimmy Fallon was caught off guard during the May 20 episode of 'The Tonight Show' when guest Isabela Merced brought up his failed date with Nicole Kidman.

The host revealed what video game he and Kidman played that night, calling it "the most embarrassing" part and pretending to end the segment early.

Fallon and Kidman first shared the memory in 2015, when they discussed their different sides of the story.

During the episode, Fallon was discussing The Last of Us with cast member Isabela Merced, when Merced caught him off guard by bringing up his failed date with Nicole Kidman.

“In 2012, we had The Last of Us video game creators on Late Night to preview it a year before it came out,” Fallon began. “That's got to be one of the scariest video games I've ever played in my life, The Last of Us.”

“Was that the game you were playing when you bombed your date with Nicole Kidman?” Merced blurted out.

As the audience let out a collective, “ooh,” Fallon stared blankly at the 23-year-old actress, who was laughing.

“It's a pleasure meeting you, we're out of time,” he finally replied, holding back his laughter. “We'll be right back. We’ve had a great Tonight Show — one of the best ones we've ever done!”

“So was it?” Merced quipped.

“No, we were playing ‘Mario Kart,’” Fallon responded. “But thanks for bringing it up.”

Joking that the clip of him sharing that story is her “favorite,” Fallon covered his face with his hands and declared: “It’s the most embarrassing!”

“63 million people watched that,” she teased before Fallon repeatedly said, "Oh no, no, no."

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Fallon first revealed the details of his date with Kidman when she was a guest on a 2015 episode of his late-night show. The awkward segment began with the two realizing that they had very different interpretations of the interaction.

“Our mutual friend was like, ‘Oh, Jimmy wants to meet you, so you can go over to his apartment,’” Kidman recalled. “And I’m single, and I’m like, ‘Okay, yeah. Cool.’”

Fallon interrupted and exclaimed, “Wait! What are you talking about? Did I date Nicole Kidman? Did we go on a date?”

Kidman explained that she felt like Fallon was rejecting her.

“I went over, and you’re there in a baseball cap and, like, nothing,” she joked. “And you wouldn’t talk. You wouldn’t say anything, and then you put a video game on or something.”

Fallon then shush’d the Babygirl star after revealing that his apartment only had “video games and sneakers” in it.

“I swear, and you wouldn’t talk at all,” she continued. “And so after about an hour and a half, I thought, ‘He has no interest, this is so embarrassing.’ And then I was like, ‘Maybe he’s gay.’”

Falling out of his chair laughing, Fallon playfully started to exit the stage and Kidman declared: "It was so bad."

“I am in shock right now,” he replied. “I can’t believe I dated Nicole Kidman. This is fantastic!”

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