Keith Urban was "devastated" after seeing his wife Nicole Kidman in physical pain during filming for 'Little Big Lies'.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban

The 49-year-old actress was left with real bruises on her back after playing the role of Celeste, a woman who is abused by her husband (played by Alexander Skarsgard), in the HBO limited series, and has said her real-life husband Keith was less than impressed with her wounds.

She said: "I was really bruised. At one point Keith was like 'I'm going to take a photo of your back because it's covered in deep, massive bruises.' He was devastated seeing it, but then he would say, 'But I have an artist wife!'"

The Australian star - who has children Isabella, 24, and Connor, 22, with ex-husband Tom Cruise, and daughters Sunday, eight, and Faith, six, with Keith - says she often "doesn't notice" the toll the scenes have on her body.

She added to Vogue magazine: "He knows that's how I work; I don't even notice it half the time. I loved playing her, because she was a beautifully written character with a director that totally wanted to go there, and to have an actor like Alex to play opposite off of was amazing.

"That's what we all seek as actors. But at the same time, when I walked away from it, I remember thinking that was the deepest I've gone in terms of finding and losing things."

Meanwhile, Nicole recently said the pain she suffered whilst filming was worth it in order to "tap into the truth" of domestic violence.

She said: "It was very strange. It was very uncomfortable. It wasn't a good feeling, I have to say.

"But women go through this, so I wanted to tap into the truth of it, and I wanted to be real in those scenes, so that's what it required - an element of violence."

And Nicole still feels "weird" and "uncomfortable" talking about her scenes in the drama series.

She said: "I feel weird talking about it. I'm not comfortable because - I don't know - I feel like I want the work to speak for itself, and I don't like dissecting it too much.

"It's probably one of the hardest roles I've had to talk about because I'm still very raw about it, if that makes any kind of sense. It's weird."

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