Nicole Kidman’s two young daughters will be joining her on the set of her newest film, and Kidman says she will be educating them while filming.

Kidman will be playing Gertrude Bell in Werner Herzog’s upcoming movie Queen of the Desert, and most of the shoot will take place in an actual desert. Kidman says she plans on using this time to educate her daughters on the different cultures around the world, and wants them to have a trip that they will remember forever.

“[The shoot will be] a couple of months, so I’ll be taking my little girls as part of their education,” she said. “So we’ll take lots of sunblock and give them a chance to experience different cultures. In years to come they’ll be able to say: ‘When I was three, I was in the desert with my mother.’ When I explained that they’ll be riding camels and living in tents, their eyes lit up,” Kidman continued.

Kidman has played a variety of characters over the years, and she says she always chooses the parts that she feels will challenge her. “As an actor timing is important, especially as a mother with small children, so a lot is chance. I try never to be governed by fear; that’s how I choose things,” she added. “If I ever feel that this is dangerous or I’m scared of it, then that probably draws me more towards it.”

“I respond to things emotionally,” Kidman explained. “I’m not in a position where I have to work, and I have young children [Sunday, five, and Faith, three] and I’m extremely lucky that I’m not an actor who has to do a job because I need to get paid. I can choose from a place of pure desire to put a story out in the world.”

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