That Time Nicole Kidman Taught Joey King ‘The Most Epic, Awful Butt Workout’ On The Set Of A Family Affair

 Joey king on the tonight show starring jimmy fallon.
Credit: NBC

While they might not love doing it, something we often hear celebrities talking about is how they workout. Seeing as how many of them work hard for their rather enviable physiques, it’s likely that they spend no small amount of time on such sweaty pursuits on a daily basis. Well, A Family Affair (which critics have not been kind to) star Joey King just opened up about how her co-star, Nicole Kidman, taught her “the most epic, awful butt workout” while they were filming.

What Did Joey King Say About The Butt Workout Nicole Kidman Taught Her While Filming?

The 2024 Netflix movie, A Family Affair, is a rom-com that sees Nicole Kidman and Joey King (who both rocked big summer trends at the movie’s premiere) play a mother and daughter who have to face some comedic ups and downs as Zac Efron’s character begins an age-gap romance with Kidman’s character. While King’s co-stars gave her A+ reactions after she performed a funny stunt for the film, it turns out that the butt workout taught to her by Kidman as they filmed may have been more difficult for her.

In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, King admitted that the fitness level of her co-stars led to her becoming something of a “gym rat” as they worked on the movie, and then said that Kidman introduced her to an “epic” butt exercise:

Nicole was the one who taught me – it was a day on set and I was like ‘I haven’t worked out today,’ and she was like ‘Let’s work out now,’ and I was like, ‘We’re in jeans.’ But, she taught me the most epic, awful butt workout I’ve ever learned in my life. It was, like, so intense. I was like ‘I’m a youngster, I can hang. I’m young and I’m agile.’ I thought I could hang but I couldn’t hang. It was all these donkey kicks and the rainbows and fire hydrants. But you have to keep your leg in the air for like 12 years, it’s so hard.

Alright. I’ve been exposed to info about a lot of celebrity workouts, just like any good celeb-watcher has. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that we got an exhausting look at Travis Kelce’s NFL workout and Kevin Hart’s intense “Iron Man” workout, but I can confess to not knowing all the names for every move. Thank goodness there’s a video to accompany her words and she mimed the movements, because while I understand what a “donkey kick” is, she lost me at “rainbows and fire hydrants” until I saw what she was doing.

She doesn’t mention how long one has to count while doing these exercises on each leg, but considering that she noted that it felt like she had to keep each leg up “for like 12 years,” I’m guessing it was a pretty long time. And, the fan of blacking out on a roller coaster confessed that even though she thought she’d be fine with all those booty-busting exercises, she just “couldn’t hang.” However, that doesn’t mean she abandoned the gluteus maximus method of the star of the upcoming Practical Magic 2:

I do it still because it’s the most effective workout. So I send her photos when I do it. I’m like ‘Call an ambulance, love you.’

I know she’s exaggerating again, but can you imagine? Calling an ambulance and having to tell the paramedics that you hurt yourself doing “rainbows and fire hydrants” to build a better butt would be at least 85% embarrassing, right? Hopefully, with King still perfecting the workout, she’ll continue to be far away from that actually happening.