What Is Nicole Kidman’s Erotic Drama Babygirl About? All About the Steamy Thriller — And How NSFW the Film Really Is

Nicole Kidman is no stranger to romance movies, but her latest, Babygirl, might be her juiciest yet.

A24’s Babygirl, which will be released on Dec. 25, 2024, tells the story of a highly powerful CEO, Romy, who puts her marriage and career on the line when she begins an illicit affair with a new intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson). Written and directed by Halina Reijn, whose previous work includes Bodies Bodies Bodies, the movie first premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2024.

Kidman plays the troubled Romy, while Antonio Banderas plays her husband, Jacob. The Academy Award-winning actress has been vocal about the difficulty she experienced taking on the role, which involved levels of vulnerability and sensuality that she hadn’t previously tapped into for a project.

“I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being,” Kidman told Vanity Fair in August 2024. “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?’ ”

From why Kidman felt “ragged” after shooting the film to who else is in the cast, here’s everything to know about Babygirl.

What is Babygirl about?

The A24 movie tells the story of Romy, who is the CEO of her own company and highly esteemed in her work while also balancing being a mother and wife. While on the surface she seems to have her life very together, it turns out Romy is disconnected from herself — specifically sexually, Reijn told Vanity Fair.

“The more perfect you want to be, the more dangerously things start to crumble down — and you have to deal with the things that are actually inside you,” she said.

When she meets intern Samuel, she’s immediately taken aback by his forwardness and the two begin a steamy affair. Their sex life turns kinky quickly as Samuel takes on a more dominant role in their S&M romance.

In order to play the roles, Kidman said she and Dickinson, with the help of intimacy coordinators, had “an enormous amount of trust” in each other that was key to creating their dynamic.

Dickinson echoed her sentiments at an October 2024 Q&A at the London West Hollywood, saying, “Of course there were days where I would go in really terrified of a scene or I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”

However, overall, he said, he felt that his and Kidman’s needs and concerns were always prioritized. “There was never a day that if the scene wasn’t working or if we weren’t comfortable or we weren’t getting something, we never felt that time was more important. It was just like, ‘Okay, everyone go away for a second,’ ” he said.

Who is in the cast?

The main cast includes Kidman and Dickinson, as well as Banderas in the role of Romy’s husband Jacob, who is a theater director. Also joining them are Sophie Wilde as Esme, and Esther Rose McGregor and Vaughan Reilly as Isabel and Nora, Romy’s daughters.

Kidman and Dickinson largely lead the film as love interests and have emphasized the importance of establishing a level of trust between them, especially while filming the more intimate parts of the movie.

“She is like the most comforting, warm performer to work across from,” Dickinson told Variety in October 2024. “She sets the tone on set, and she makes it so easy to be vulnerable and to be funny, because she is so daring, he’s so brave, and she does stuff, and you’re like, ‘What the f— is that?’ You can’t even think of it.”

Is there a trailer for Babygirl?

The trailer for Babygirl was released on Oct. 1 and offered a first glimpse into the raunchy romance. The clip opens with Romy walking down a street when she spots Samuel beckoning a dog over to him to pet it.

Romy appears stunned, and later in the trailer, she asks Samuel how he got the dog to come over. He replies that he summoned him with a cookie. “Why, do you want one?” he coyly adds.

The tension between the two builds, and ultimately, their affair begins as the trailer includes some shots of the two getting intimate, appearing to leave Romy rattled.

“You’re very young, I don’t want to hurt you,” Romy says at one point, acknowledging her age and power over him. However, Samuel doesn’t seem easily frazzled, telling her, “Hurt me? I think I have power over you. Because I could make one call, and you lose everything. Does that turn you on when I say that?”

Who is directing Babygirl?

Reijn, who has previously worked with A24 on the bloody thriller Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, helmed the project and has since admitted she always had Kidman in mind for the part of Romy.

Kidman has since spoken about how she felt protected by Reijn as a female director, explaining in a press conference before the film debuted in Venice that she never felt exploited.

“That’s what made it so compelling, was being in the hands of Halina, because I knew she wasn’t gonna exploit me,” Kidman told reporters. “I mean, however anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it. It’s the story that I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to tell. And every part of me was committed to that.”

During the October Q&A, Kidman elaborated that she felt flipping the script and telling the story of a woman in power having an affair with a young employee rather than the reverse felt “liberating” at times, especially due to Reijn’s protection.

“You have your director at the helm going, ‘I will protect you. Nothing that’s going to be in the film will be anything that you are not comfortable with. You are going to be okay,’ ” she said.

What has Kidman said about Babygirl?

Kidman has been honest about how difficult it was to get into the role of Romy, especially given the level of intimacy showcased in the film.

She admitted to Vanity Fair that she often walked away from a day of shooting feeling “ragged.”

“At some point I was like, I don’t want to be touched,” the A Family Affair actress said. “I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it. [Director Halina Reijn] would hold me and I would hold her, because it was just very confronting to me.”

“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,” she added. “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.”

How NSFW is Babygirl?

Babygirl has been marketed as a particularly erotic movie that explores kinks, including domination and power dynamics. The movie has an R rating for strong sexual content, nudity and language.

Reijn told Vanity Fair she wanted to portray an “X-ray” of kink and showcase the reality of what sex looks like through a female perspective.

“They try to play these different, fun roles with each other, but they can also be scary and embarrassing,” she told the outlet. “We don’t show this glossy fantasy; it’s actually an attempt to show the human side of all of that. In my eyes, it’s way more hot because it’s not just a perfect end result — which is often how it goes in the bedroom.”

For Kidman, telling a story that includes a great deal of sexuality wasn’t new for her, but the level to which this movie goes, she told Vanity Fair, was foreign terrain.

“A lot of the themes in my movies have been explored through the lens of sexuality,” Kidman said. “I’ve not eliminated that or tried to pretend it isn’t there.”

When will Babygirl be released?

Babygirl is set to be released in theaters on Dec. 25, 2024.

Source people.com