S Poddar
Nicole Kidman’s latest movie, Babygirl, has long been gaining attention well prior to its release-even its star confesses that she is leery about seeing it. The Australian actress refers to the film as the most risqué she has ever worked on, confessing that its explicit nature makes her feel raw.
But the one generating the most noise right now is Babygirl, which premieres at the Venice Film Festival next week. The erotic thriller, directed by Halina Reijn, who helmed *Bodies Bodies Bodies*, promises to push the envelope in ways Kidman hasn’t seen before. It tells the story of a passionate and taboo affair between Romy, a high-powered New York executive played by Kidman, and the company’s new intern, played by Harris Dickinson.
But Babygirl is of such an intensity that Kidman braces for a rouging experience. “‘Okay, this was made for the big screen and to be seen with people,’ there’s something in me which goes, but then I’m like, ‘That’s a high-wire act. I’m not sure I have that much bravery,'” she said to Vanity Fair. Kidman only seems practically nervous in considering the raw, incendiary quality of the film.
The explicit scenes in the film are radically long, and filming them had been physically and emotionally exhausting for Kidman. Speaking candidly, she said there were a few scenes so intimate that they sounded private even to her. “I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being,” Kidman confessed. The process entailed her having to psych herself up emotionally and mentally between takes-underscore deep the impact of the film on her.
Reijn has described the film, which she co-wrote with Kidman in mind, as not only provocative but a granular account of eroticism. Sure, there is sex in the film-but very little of it is for the benefit of shock value. Instead, it’s an attempt to burrow deep into the thorniness of desire and intimacy. Kidman and Reijn met in New York and talked about their lives, honing scenes for authenticity and heft.
The involvement of intimacy coordinators to choreograph each detail of the sex scenes points to how the film is committed to bringing sexuality on screen with truthfulness and subtlety. Kidman spoke about challenging scenes: “At the same time [I] was compelled to do it,” she said of the dichotomy between this film’s heavy demands and her own limits.
Kidman’s doing such graphic material is in line with her thoughts on the necessity of tackling subjects modern society tends to avoid. At one point, while talking to the press about how she approaches sex scenes, Kidman has mentioned that sex scenes should not be superfluous but rather have a point behind them. “I’m not going to do it just willy-nilly,” she has said to Harper’s Bazaar. But if there’s a reason for it… I’ve always said that sex is a very important connection between human beings. Why would you not depict it onscreen?
In Babygirl, Kidman shares the screen with fellow luminaries such as Sophie Wilde, Antonio Banderas, and Jean Reno. The film promises to be steeped in controversy, its forthrightness about sexuality likely to raise many eyebrows and perhaps even change the mindset of some viewers. Having premiered at Venice and set to release in the UK on 20 December, Babygirl will no doubt prove an attention-grabbing vehicle-one that reflects Kidman’s attachment to stretching artistic boundaries while embracing difficult public and private vulnerabilities.
