Sydney - Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman denied Tuesday she was embarrassed by her performance in Baz Luhrmann's epic Australia and fled her homeland for fear of what the critics would say about the country's costliest film.

Last week Britain's Daily Mail quoted Kidman saying in a November 21 interview with a Sydney radio station that she "squirmed in her seat," couldn't "connect emotionally at all with it," and "ran" from the expected bad reviews.

Kidman's Sydney-based publicist said the Daily Mail report misrepresented what the 41-year-old actor had said.

"It's quite ridiculous for anyone to believe the reports if they listened to the actual interview," the spokeswoman told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "It's hard to believe some of the world's media have fallen for it."

Kidman told the radio station that she was uncomfortable at the Sydney premiere because of the adulation she was receiving in her hometown and because she always blushed to see herself on screen.

She said she never read reviews of her films, good or bad, and that she always found it impossible to connect emotionally with her finished work.

In a transcript of the interview, Kidman quotes film director Stanley Kubrick saying "When you read the script for the first time as an actor, that's the only time when you'll have an emotional response to it."

Australia, a film four years in the making, has been panned by critics and had disappointing sales around the world. Within weeks of opening in Australia, the World War II epic was being beaten at the box office by Kung Fu Panda and five other films.

The 165-minute marathon starring Kidman and compatriot Hugh Jackman is unlikely to feature in the Oscar awards or stay in cinemas beyond the end of the month.

The Australian government has come in for criticism for funding around a quarter of its 150-million-US-dollar budget and gearing a tourism promotion campaign around a film that has been termed a flop. (dpa)