Nicole Kidman was told she was "past it" by Hollywood bosses "more than once".

Nicole Kidman was told she was 'finished'

Nicole Kidman was told she was 'finished'

The 54-year-old actress portrays legendary comedienne Lucille Ball in new movie 'Being the Ricardos' and she admitted she could relate to the way the 'I Love Lucy' star was written off in the later years of her career.

She said: "She'd been slapped down, told she wasn't good enough — and that she was too old.

"I can relate to Lucille Ball, where you're told, 'You're past it now. You're over.'

"I've been in this industry for decades now; and I've been 'finished' more than once."

But Nicole has enjoyed a career resurgence in recent years, largely thanks to her role in television series 'Big Little Lies' - however, the Oscar-winning star believes it's ironic she's done so well off the back of the show because she felt "relegated" to TV.

She told the Daily Mail newspaper columnist Baz Bamigboye: "I was 'relegated' to TV. But the irony is that TV came through. In terms of trajectory, it changed my career. Reese [Witherspoon] and I did that show and I never thought what it would lead to. The same for Lucille Ball when she moved to TV."

In 'Being the Ricardos', Javier Bardem plays Lucille's husband, Desi Arnaz, and he and Nicole bonded by learning to dance together, which they had a great time doing.

Nicole said: "We had to learn to dance together — that was one of the first things we did. We channelled Lucy and Desi to help us. We had an abandonment with each other. I was like, 'Let's get tactile!'

"I'm vaccinated and tested; and I said to Javier, 'Can we please touch?' And we committed to it. They were this sexy couple — they had to be able to touch."