Nicole Kidman told a courtroom Monday how she was reduced to tears and feared a car accident after a celebrity photographer pursued her two years ago.

Kidman, who divides her time between Los Angeles and her hometown of Sydney, was testifying in the photographer's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper that slammed him for allegedly hounding the Oscar-winning actress.

The film star, who wore a gray knee-length skirt, cream-colored blouse and pale pink cardigan and had her long, curly hair drawn up in a loose bun, appeared calm and composed during the session in the New South Wales state Supreme Court.

Her poise contrasted sharply with her description of the ride from her house in Sydney to her parents' home in another part of the city for dinner on Jan. 23, 2005.

Kidman described hunkering down in the car's back seat — leaning over in her chair in the witness stand to demonstrate — to try to avoid being spotted by photographer Jamie Fawcett.

She said the trip quickly turned into a hair-raising chase as a vehicle carrying Fawcett and another vehicle, believed to contain his assistant, lurched through traffic around Kidman's car.

"I was frightened and I was worried there was going to be an accident," Kidman said.

Kidman said she was "really, really scared" during the car ride and that she was "in tears and distressed" by the time she reached her parents' house.