Nicole Kidman wanted Julia Roberts’ role in Notting Hill but says she ‘wasn’t talented enough’

‘Big Little Lies’ star was also up for a part in ‘Love, Actually’

Nicole Kidman (left) says she was ‘not well known or talented enough’ to star in 1999’s ‘Notting Hill' (Universal Pictures)

Nicole Kidman has revealed that she wanted to play Julia Roberts’ role opposite Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, but “wasn’t talented enough”.

Kidman made the remark while speaking to Grant ahead of the release of their new HBO miniseries The Undoing. 

“I really wanted the role that Julia Roberts played in Notting Hill.  But I wasn’t well known enough, and I wasn’t talented enough,” she said.

The Big Little Lies star also revealed that she had been up for a part in Richard Curtis’s 2003 Christmas film Love, Actually.

“I think there was something where I think I really wanted a role … maybe I was gonna do a small role in Love, Actually at one point,” she said. 

“I can’t remember. It was not a big role.”

In the 1999 film, Roberts played Anna Scott,  a Hollywood celebrity who falls for a charming bookshop owner, played by Grant.

Both Notting Hill and Love, Actually were written by Richard Curtis (who also directed the latter), with Grant also starring in both projects.

The Undoing is based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz, and tells the story of a successful therapist whose life is upended by a sudden violent event.