Nicole Kidman has recalled the awful day she learned of her mentor and director friend Stanley Kubrick's death for a new tribute article, revealing she had just watched the final cut of the film she and then-husband Tom Cruise had made with him.

Kidman received a phone call informing her of the movie icon's passing the morning after the couple watched the private screening of Eyes Wide Shut in New York.

She tells The Hollywood Reporter, "That was one of the worst calls. I just started screaming.

"I had (children) Isabella and Connor in the kitchen with me. Tom and I immediately got on a plane. The funeral was so traumatic.

"I truly loved Stanley and felt very connected to him. He was in our lives intensely for about four years."

And the dark days didn't end there - the film was released four months later, on the weekend John F. Kennedy, Jr. died in a plane accident (Jul99).

Kidman recalls, "(It was) a black, black weekend."