The reason Nicole turned down this Oscar-winning role is veeeeery interesting.
Pregnant women put a lot of effort into ensuring their baby is healthy and safe in the womb. They eat certain foods, take certain vitamins and avoid certain activities like heavy lifting or performing in Oscar-winning movies.
We weren’t kidding about that last one. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Nicole Kidman has revealed she turned down the leading role in the acclaimed Holocaust film The Reader because she was concerned about how such negative material would impact on her unborn child.
The movie, which was released in 2008, told the harrowing story of Hanna Schmitz, a woman embroiled in Nazi activity in World War 2.
Nicole, who fell pregnant with her daughter Sunday Rose, now 5, just after being cast as Hanna, believes the dark themes attached to the role had the potential to "penetrate" her baby.
"I got pregnant and I was meant to do The Reader. And they said, “Oh can you still do it?” But I cannot work pregnant. The way I work, it would penetrate my baby," she explains.
In the end Kate Winslet took over the role and was awarded a Best Actress Oscar for her performance. You'd expect Nicole to be kicking herself for changing her mind, but she stands by her decision to focus on her baby.
"I know now what I probably didn’t know in my 20s. I would absolutely know now that I would always choose the sanctity and sacredness of my family, and if that was ever in jeopardy, no question."
