Kidman 'begged' to leave The Others

Kidman: "Wonderful" to work with Cruise on The Others

Nicole Kidman has revealed she "begged" to be let out of working on her latest film The Others - and said it had nothing to do with co-producer and her ex-husband, Tom Cruise.

The Australian actress said that after the joy of filming Moulin Rouge she could not face working on the horror film.

"When I got there and was just about to start rehearsals I really didn't want to do it," she told BBC Breakfast.

Tom Cruise co-produced The Others

"My whole being, my whole psyche, was rejecting it and I was desperate to try to get out of it - I begged them to let me out," she said.

Kidman, 34, said that Moulin Rouge had put her in the wrong frame of mind for The Others.

"I was so involved in that, with stars in my eyes, and all I wanted to do was make love stories and musicals and be happy - even though Satine dies, it's about love and belief in love."

The actress said that the fact that Tom Cruise - from whom she is now estranged - was co-producing The Others was no problem for her.

UK veteran Eric Sykes is also in The Others

"It wasn't at a difficult stage then, I thought it was wonderful," she said.

'Extraordinary success'

And she praised Tom Cruise's work - which she described as "one of the greatest careers of all time".

"He's managed to sustain this extraordinary level of success since he was 17 and that's flabbergasting - I don't have the ability to do that.

"And I know the next film he's got coming up, Vanilla Sky, is fantastic - I saw him working on that and I think he's going to be amazing in it."

But the actress refused to be drawn on how she saw her own relationship with Cruise now.

"We're a family still, and that needs to be protected, and it's been a very embarrassing and humiliating experience in terms of all the things that have gone on in the last few months - so to sit here and talk about it just seems not right," she said.

Grace: A character from "a Greek tragedy"

In The Others Kidman plays Grace, a wife and mother waiting for her husband to return from the front in World War II.

'Obsession'

She said Grace's dark and obsessive character was really motivated by love.

"You could judge her so harshly for what she does.

"But she does it because of obsession, because the love for these children is so strong and so powerful and the desire to protect them is all-encompassing - which I think is a very real thing, in terms of the way in which love can go wrong.

"I've always said that the film is in the genre of a horror film but has the female character of a Greek tragedy."