Nicole Kidman turned down the role that earned Kate Winslet an Oscar.

The Australian actress has revealed she was a top choice to lead director Stephen Daldry's 2008 holocaust drama The Reader but she turned her back on the chance to play a former Nazi concentration camp guard over concerns for the welfare of her unborn child, Sunday Rose.

The Moulin Rouge! star was pregnant at the time and she feared the themes of the film would impact her daughter.

She tells the Mail on Sunday newspaper, "The way I work, it would penetrate my baby... I got pregnant and I was meant to do The Reader. And they said, 'Oh can you still do it?' But I cannot work pregnant."

Winslet picked up a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Hanna Schmitz in the film.