I think someone alredy posted this...

Sitting in her trailer in the middle of nowhere - or more specifically, 60 miles from the outback town of Kununurra, Western Australia - Nicole Kidman nurses blisters on her feet as she steels herself to participate in a cattle drive on the set of Baz Luhrmann's ambitious period epic, Australia. It's certainly a far cry from her days the previous year donning elegant dresses and fine furs as The Golden Compass' refined Mrs Coulter.

"But this is what I love about being an actress," she says. "I go from a fantastic, imaginary setting to this very harsh, very real world." As she pulls on her riding boots, Kidman suggests that she actually quite enjoys being out in the back of beyond. " You can get corrupted by the business side of what we do. I do far better when I'm away from that and I just get to play!"

That's not to say her time as Mrs Coulter was a trial. She enjoyed that the role, despite being in a movie which is, on the surface, a 'children's' film [easy, Pulman fans!], was the first time in a while that let her be overtly sensuous. "I wanted her to have sexuality," she says. "It's a very strong part of the character. She's refined, but she's also described in the book as magnetic."

You'd think that Coulter - who along with her creepy golden-haired monkey daemon is the villain of the piece - also allowed Kidman to explore her darker side, but she's reluctant to see the role in such a way. "I don't judge the character. Nobody is born that way, so I had to fight to show the heart of the woman, because there is a heart. There are motives and reasons you discover as the story goes along."

Mrs Coulter's story doesn't end with The Golden Compass, of course and assuming the movie doesn't die at the box office, she will return for two further instalments - something she's looking forward to. "It's unusual to play a character over the course of three films," she says. "in the first one you only get a glimpse of where she's going, it's only a taste of her. You get an essence of her, but you don't fully understand Mrs Coulter until you play out all three. I really hope we get to do that." JUNE BARKER