--- title: Oscars 2017: Nicole Kidman's Clapping VIDEO description: Nicole Kidman's strange clapping skills mystified social media users during the 2017 Oscars on Sunday canonical: https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-27T03:54:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:31:59.257Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: People Are Obsessed With Nicole Kidman's Weird Clapping og:description: "Nicole Kidman learned to clap from an otter at Sea World" og:url: https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8ffa2db1f9f635/6988bc0e8e060106ed4695ab/nicole-kidman.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-OSCARS-ARRIVALS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Are Obsessed With Nicole Kidman's Weird Clapping twitter:description: "Nicole Kidman learned to clap from an otter at Sea World" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8ffa2db1f9f635/6988bc0e8e060106ed4695ab/nicole-kidman.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Are Obsessed With Nicole Kidman's Weird Clapping by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Feb 27, 2017 3:54 AM UTC  Nicole Kidman arrives on the red carpet for the 89th Oscars, on Feb. 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif. Nicole Kidman arrives on the red carpet for the 89th Oscars, on Feb. 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif.Angela Weiss—AFP/Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Feb 27, 2017 3:54 AM UTC Nicole Kidman’s strange clapping skills mystified social media users during the [2017 Oscars](http://time.com/4680083/oscars-2017-winners-list/) on Sunday. Kidman, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in [_Lion_](http://time.com/4671727/dev-patel-lion-oscars-interview/), appeared to only clap using her palms during the [Oscars](http://time.com/4683342/oscars-2017-ryan-gosling-justin-timberlake/), without touching her fingers. This lead people to question whether the Aussie actor knows how to clap. > [](https://twitter.com/rachel/status/836053766382227456) > [](https://twitter.com/MichaelLopriore/status/836049967399731201) > [](https://twitter.com/%5FDHearn%5F/status/836051453236166656) > [](https://twitter.com/baratunde/status/836047665787994112) > [](https://twitter.com/LogoDash/status/836047801159135233) > [](https://twitter.com/tadfriend/status/836047340691681280) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/"},"headline":"People Are Obsessed With Nicole Kidman's Weird Clapping","datePublished":"2017-02-27T03:54:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:31:59.257Z","description":"\"Nicole Kidman learned to clap from an otter at Sea World\"","url":"https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/","keywords":["awards","onetime","Oscars 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8ffa2db1f9f635/6988bc0e8e060106ed4695ab/nicole-kidman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8ffa2db1f9f635/6988bc0e8e060106ed4695ab/nicole-kidman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-OSCARS-ARRIVALS","caption":"Nicole Kidman arrives on the red carpet for the 89th Oscars, on Feb. 26, 2017 in Hollywood, Calif.","creditText":"Angela Weiss—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/awards/","name":"awards"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4683389/oscars-2017-nicole-kidman-clap/","name":"People Are Obsessed With Nicole Kidman's Weird Clapping"}}]}] ```