LOS ANGELES: With several films set to debut this year, including such disparate turns as a taxidermist villainess, mysterious amnesiac and an actress-turned-princess, Nicole Kidman will again become a familiar face in theaters.

While maintaining a steady presence in Hollywood for more than two decades, the 46-year-old Academy Award winner has been focusing more in recent years on raising her two daughters with husband and country star Keith Urban — away from the spotlight in Nashville, Tennessee For her latest role in “The Railway Man,” out April 11, the “Moulin Rouge” and “The Hours” star plays a supportive wife to World War II veteran Eric Lomax (Colin Firth). In the autobiographical adaptation, Patti and Eric Lomax confront his past as a prisoner of war in Thailand, where he worked on the “death railway,” a 258-mile stretch of treacherous train track running into Burma.

Upcoming this year, Kidman will also play a villainess in “Paddington,” amnesiac in “Before I Go to Sleep,” leading lady Grace Kelly in “Grace of Monaco” and Middle East pioneer Gertrude Bell in “Queen of the Desert.”

What was it like to play Grace Kelly? “I have not seen the version that’s showing at Cannes, but obviously I will. I may be seeing it opening night at Cannes. It was the chance of a lifetime to play her. I really admire her, and I think she has such otherworldly qualities. I think she has an aura about her. I don’t know if I’m able to capture that, but I was honored to have the chance to. We’ll see. It’s only a six-month period of her life that we depict. It’s a fairytale. It’s not a heavy drama. It’s got beautiful costumes. It’s sumptuous.”

The actress says she balances between her and her husband’s schedule by spending time together when they are not working.

“Every time when we’re not working, we spend together. That’s it. It’s that simple. We’re not off. We have a very simple life but an extraordinary creative life, if that makes sense. I’m lucky that I’ve got a partner that’s totally committed to making it work. We have two little girls that we adore, and we’re very blessed, in the sense of having a family. We certainly talk about everything. We make the decisions together.”