In a recent interview, Nicole Kidman admitted that filming the intimate scenes for the upcoming movie Babygirl left her feeling exhausted to the point of near burnout, prompting her to take breaks even while the cameras were rolling.
The film is set to hit theaters on January 10, 2025, but it has already attracted significant media attention. Babygirl is described as an American erotic horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Halina Reijn. In the film, Kidman plays a middle-aged CEO who enters a forbidden romantic relationship with a young and alluring intern, portrayed by Harris Dickinson.
In August, the film earned Kidman the award for Best Actress at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. During an interview with The Sun on October 22, she revealed that to achieve the standout moments on the big screen, she put in a lot of effort, and the steamy scenes with her male co-stars (Dickinson as the young lover and Antonio Banderas as her husband) truly drained her physically.
She shared, “There’s a lot of sharing, trust, and then exhaustion. It’s like, ‘Don’t touch me.’ There were times during filming when I thought, ‘Don’t come near me. I hate doing this.’ I don’t care if I never get close to anyone again in my life. I was overwhelmed. For me, it felt almost exhausting.”
In her over 40-year acting career, Nicole has never shied away from intimate scenes. She previously appeared in a group sex scene in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) alongside her then-husband Tom Cruise and participated in a terrifying bedroom game with Colin Farrell in Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). In 2024, she will also have steamy scenes with Zac Efron and Liev Schreiber in A Family Affair and The Perfect Couple.
However, Babygirl is regarded as her most provocative performance to date. Despite the demanding work, Nicole remains undeterred. The Aquaman actress expressed that she was drawn to the project because it explores territory she had never experienced in her career. As an actress, she is always seeking new challenges and pushing her boundaries.
Nicole added that while reading the script, she found the content amusing but was also intrigued and captivated by it, almost like a trance. She believes that aside from the assistance of an intimacy coordinator, the main reason she could portray the steamy moments on screen was that Halina is a female director. Additionally, she and Dickinson (28) and Banderas (64) had a rapport, always being gentle and supportive of one another.
Nicole also shared that she and her co-stars did not feel constrained or limited by the intimacy coordinator. Before accepting the role, Nicole talked with her family, including her husband Keith Urban and their two daughters, Sunday Rose (16) and Faith Margaret (13). Her husband, being an artist himself, understands the nature of her work, and her daughters are supportive, but the actress recognizes that she must let go of certain things to pursue her passion.
