Nicole Kidman eats cockroaches and spiders.

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

The 50-year-old actress was "excited" to tuck into witchetty grubs on her first ever movie role because she is very "adventurous" and happy to try any dish put in front of her.

She told W magazine: "The first professional job [I had] was 'Bush Christmas,' which was a film I did in Australia.

"I was 14, it was shooting out in the bush in Queensland, and I got to eat witchetty grubs. Do you know what witchetty grubs are? They are worms that live in the earth, and they're a milky white colour, and I eat them in the film.

"I wanted to eat them! I was excited to do that.

"I'm one of those people. I could go on 'Survivor' and I wouldn't be good at the climbing and all of the physical stuff, but I could eat anything. Just so you know. That's my secret skill.

"Give me a cockroach, I'll eat it! Spider, I'll eat it! You name it, I've tried it. I'm adventurous."

When Nicole - who has daughters Sunday, eight, and Faith, six, with her husband Keith Urban, as well as adopted children Isabella, 24, and Connor, 22, with former spouse Tom Cruise - feels like she needs "protection" or comfort, she likes nothing better than curling up with a good book.

She said: "I grew up watching TV, but I also grew up watching a lot of theatre, and I grew up with literature.

"That was basically where I moulded my imagination and where I could get lost. And I'm still like that.

"Like, I'll find a book and I can just read and read and read, and it's my protection, it's my sanctuary, it's my place that I can go when I need friends, you know.

"More than cinema, more than television, more than any of those things, I've found that through books."