Nicole Kidman on ‘Babygirl’ Role: “It Left Me Ragged and Very Exposed”

Nicole Kidman just might shut her eyes when the upcoming erotic thriller “Babygirl” from A24 premieres at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

The Oscar winner and “Eyes Wide Shut” alum shared with Vanity Fair that “Babygirl,” written and directed by Halina Reijn, is the most “exposing” film of her career.

“I’ve made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this,” Kidman said. “I just work with abandonment. A lot of the themes in my movies have been explored through the lens of sexuality. I’ve not eliminated that or tried to pretend it isn’t there. That’s vulnerable, but I’m never going to shy away from that to my dying day. I’ll place myself in a vulnerable position and see where that takes me.”

Kidman portrays a CEO whose marriage to a theater director, played by Antonio Banderas, is on the rocks. She finds passion anew with a fresh intern, portrayed by Harris Dickinson, and embarks on a BDSM affair.

The production was particularly taxing for Kidman, who found it challenging to separate herself from her character between takes.

“It left me ragged. At some point, I was like, I don’t want to be touched,” Kidman expressed. “I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time, I was compelled to do it.”

She continued, “I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being. I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on. What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?”

With the film’s debut at Venice 2024 approaching, Kidman admitted she’s uncertain about how she will react to watching such a personal feature with an audience.

“It’s like, Golly, I’m doing this, and it’s actually now going to be seen by the world. That’s a very weird feeling,” Kidman said. “This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”

During production, Kidman credited director Halina Reijn for fostering a safe working environment on set.

“Halina would hold me, and I would hold her, because it was just very confronting to me,” Kidman said. “It was being able to talk unbelievably honestly and graphically — and that’s woman-to-woman, as though you are sitting on your bed and talking to your sister or your best friend. That’s incredibly safe. Halina has a very strong maternal instinct, so she was very protective of all of us. But particularly me.”

She added, “I just kind of went, ‘Right, that’s it. I will open myself up to you every which way, and let’s see where we go together.’ I would hope that you feel us in the movie, because it’s very much an us.”

Reijn, who also directed “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” explained her inspiration for “Babygirl.” Announced in November 2023, the film draws upon cinematic references like “Indecent Proposal” and “Basic Instinct.”

“[Those films] made me feel less alone with my own hidden sexual fantasies and desires, and from that moment on, I started to dream about being able to create something like that myself — but from my own perspective,” Reijn said. “This gave me more fire to try to shine a light on that, because I’m still struggling with my own shame around it.”

Reijn teased, “I know we accomplished one thing, and that is that we made a really hot movie. I don’t know about good, bad — that’s up to everybody — but I’m sure of that.”

“Babygirl” will make its debut at Venice. The festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, told Variety that the film is “about a sadomasochistic relationship within an American corporation” and embodies the evolving culture.

“Compared to other similar films, the ending actually testifies to the differences between now and the past,” Barbera said. “A film on this same theme 20 or 30 years ago would have ended very differently. Without spoilers, I will say that the female protagonist who engages in illicit behavior, so to speak, in the past would have been punished.”

A24 will release “Babygirl” theatrically on December 20.

Source: Vanity Fair, Variety