Nicole Kidman watched as her fake nose "floated off" while she was shooting an underwater scene for one of her movies.

The 45-year-old stars in Hemingway & Gellhorn and prosthetics are applied to her face to give the illusion of ageing.

It's not the first time Nicole has undergone an extreme makeover for a role.

For her part in 2002 movie The Hours, the actress was given a prosthetic nose to aid her portrayal of author Virginia Woolf.

"There was a moment in The Hours, when I had to go underwater with the nose," she explained on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.

"It had taken three hours to put it on and the minute I went under the water the whole thing came off! The minute I got in there, it all just floated off."

In Hemingway & Gellhorn, Nicole stars alongside Clive Owen as war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Clive portrays Ernest Hemingway and the story follows their romance.

The actress admits she dreads spending prolonged periods in the make-up chair.

"I actually hate the prosthetics, I hate putting them on," she confessed.

"I have a bit of claustrophobia, about having my whole face covered! You have these moulds on your face and you literally can't breathe. They cover your whole face with plaster."