Nicole Kidman doesn't show her movies to her family.

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

The 49-year-old actress - who has daughters Sunday, eight, and Faith, five, with her husband Keith Urban, as well as two adoptive children, Isabella, 23, and Connor, 21, from her previous marriage to Tom Cruise - insists it is "not her style" to boast about her work and force her loved ones sit down and view her films.

Explaining how neither her kids nor her mother have seen her new movie 'Lion', despite admitting she views the production as a "love letter" to her brood, she said: "It's not my style. I like to be just kind of under the radar with my work in terms of my family."

Nicole plays adoptive mother Sue Brierley in 'Lion' - which is based on Saroo Brierley's book 'A Long Way Home' - and though she won't be making her family watch the film, she thinks it will be "life-affirming" for those who do get a ticket.

She told 'Entertainment Tonight': "The film is very life-affirming.

"It's about the goodness in people, ultimately, and I think that's a beautiful message right now, emphasizing the way we're all inherently good."

The Oscar-winning actress also hopes her performance "honours" the person she portrays in the movie, which also stars Dev Patel as her adopted son.

She said: "Sue Brierley is a real woman, so I had to absorb who she was and kind of try to honour her.

"I wanted to really layer it so you felt her heart beat and you felt her spirit."

The film sees Sue and John Brierley (David Wenham) adopt young Saroo after a period on the streets of Calcutta, and when the youngster grows up, he begins searching for his birth family.

And Nicole thinks one of the main themes of the movie is the "strength of mothers".

She said: "It's like any mother will tell you, no matter happens, where you go, how it happens, where it happens, there's always love waiting for you here."