Nicole Kidman regrets not calling Stanley Kubrick

Nicole Kidman will always regret not following her intuition when she felt an urge to call Stanley Kubrick in 2009, as the moviemaker died the very next day.

The Australian actress hailed her Eyes Wide Shut director as a "great, great teacher" while chatting about her career during a question-and-answer session at the New York Film Festival on Wednesday (03Oct12).

She recalled, "(My ex-husband) Tom (Cruise) and I went to his house and had dinner, and I remember I was nervous. (Ultimately, I was) able to sit on the floor of his office... and be privy to so many things. It was like having a great, great teacher."

Kidman also revealed she nearly phoned Kubrick the night before he died.

She explains, "I remember thinking (he) was frail, and... if I were more intuitive I would have realized that he was not well. One of the worst things... was, I was going to call him and I didn't. Instead I got a phone call (the next day) saying Stanley was dead. It was one of my great regrets that I didn't call him that night."

Kubrick was 70 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in March 1999, just four days after screening his final cut of Eyes Wide Shut.