NEW YORK • Life was a cruise in Hollywood when she had a mega star - Tom Cruise - as a husband, said Nicole Kidman.

"I got married very young, but it definitely wasn't power for me - it was protection. I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed," the 51-year-old told New York Magazine in an interview published on Monday.

Describing herself as "very much cocooned" during her marriage, Kidman added: "So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it's almost like I had to grow up."

Kidman and Cruise, who have two children together, met on the set of Days Of Thunder (1990) and married that same year, when she was 22 and he was 28.

They split in 2001, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences.

Kidman, who is now married to singer Keith Urban, acknowledged that she "had #MeToo moments - since I was little".

"But do I want to expose them in an article? No. Do they come out in my work? Absolutely."

The Academy Award winner added: "I'm open and raw. I want to have my well of experience and emotion tapped into, used - and I'm not just talking about sexual harassment. I'm talking about loss, death - the full array of life."

She will get to mine that experience in a yet-to-be-named film about Roger Ailes, founder and former chairman of Fox News who resigned in 2016, following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Kidman will play anchor Gretchen Carlson, who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit that led to his downfall.

WASHINGTON POST