Nicole Kidman has admitted she felt ‘vulnerable’ filming multiple scenes of masturbation, plus a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship, for her erotic new thriller Babygirl.
The actress, 57, said that her hands were shaking with nerves yesterday as the film was unveiled, making its global premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Rising British star Harris Dickinson has a career-making turn as Samuel, the intern who intuits that his boss Kidman, the CEO of a tech firm, wants to be dominated.
Kidman has made nothing like it since the dream-like erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut with then-husband Tom Cruise 25 years ago.
She said that an intimacy co-ordinator and closed set had been vital to conjuring the sex scenes which tell the story of her character’s existential crisis, resolved through a taboo-busting sexual odyssey.
Nicole Kidman has admitted she felt ‘vulnerable’ filming multiple scenes of masturbation, plus a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship, for her erotic new thriller Babygirl
The actress, 57, said that her hands were shaking with nerves yesterday as the film was unveiled, making its global premiere at the Venice Film Festival
Kidman said: ‘I think this film is obviously yes about sex, but it’s about desire it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent.
‘This is one woman’s story and this is I hope a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze. It’s Halina (Reijn’s) script, she wrote it and she directs and that made it unique, that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very dear to our shared instincts and very, very freeing.’
She added: ‘I don’t think there’s a judgement attached (about the character). It’s for each person to react to Romy and the way she behaves. My connection to it is that I want to examine human beings, women, on screen, to explore what it means to be human in all the facets of that and the labyrinth of that.’
She said that she was: ‘exposed and vulnerable and frightened when it comes to giving it to the world’ but that her experience of making it had been: ‘delicate and intimate and very deep.’
She said: ‘I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me. However anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of that. There was enormous caretaking by all of us, we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and, at the same time, real.’
The film opens with Kidman’s character, Romy Mathis, faking a very convincing orgasm while having sex with her husband, played by Antonio Banderas, and then going into another room and masturbating to pornography.
She explores her desire to be dominated with her intern but – unlike in previous erotic dramas such as Basic Instinct – female desire doesn’t destroy her career or her family life and, without giving away the ending, she remains professionally powerful and married at its conclusion.
Director Reijn said: ‘I think all beings have different sides within ourselves and we all have a beast within ourselves. For women, we don’t have a lot of space yet to explore this behaviour.
I don’t believe in good or evil I believe that we are both.’ She added that men needed to work on the ‘huge orgasm gap.’ Actor Dickinson chimed in: ‘Everyone deserves a good orgasm.’
He added: ‘I think there is a confusion about how to conduct yourself and how to conduct yourself within sex. Halina was always ready to dissect and challenge that and to challenge the nuance of that behaviour that opened up a whole new world for me.’
She said that she was: ‘exposed and vulnerable and frightened when it comes to giving it to the world’ but that her experience of making it had been: ‘delicate and intimate and very deep.’
Kidman said: ‘I think this film is obviously yes about sex, but it’s about desire it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent’
Nicole cut a glamorous figure as she arrived at the Hotel Excelsior during the 81st Venice International Film Festival on Friday
Nicole cut a glamorous figure as she arrived at the Hotel Excelsior during the 81st Venice International Film Festival on Friday.
The film star looked incredible for the day as she slipped into a black midi dress with a plunging neckline that highlighted her lithe figure.
The garment featured short sleeves and ruffled shoulders while Nicole added height to her frame with a pair of white kitten heels.
Styling her blonde locks into a ponytail, the Oscar winner complimented her outfit with a pair of sunglasses.
Babygirl sees Nicole star as a a high-powered New York business executive who starts a risky affair with her much-younger intern.
The actress recently admitted she’s not sure she has the ‘bravery’ to watch the movie at the Venice Film Festival.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, she said: ‘There’s something in me going: ‘Okay, this was made for the big screen and to be seen with people. I’m not sure I have that much bravery.”
‘I’ve made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this.’
Nicole added that Babygirl is the most ‘exposing’ film of her career to date.
The Big Little Lies star told how she feels particularly anxious about people seeing the film’s racy sex scenes.
She said: ‘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.’
Nicole shared her apprehension over audiences seeing the sex scenes, admitting that the ‘vulnerable’ filming process left her feeling ‘ragged’.
Nicole looked nothing short of sensational as she arrived by boat to the hotel
Nicole appeared in good spirits as she posed for the cameras after arriving at the festival
The garment featured short sleeves and ruffled shoulders while Nicole added height to her frame with a pair of white kitten heels
Nicole blew a kiss to fans who were waiting nearby as she arrived
The actress accentuated her natural beauty with a light palette of makeup
Babygirl sees Nicole take on the role of Romy, a business executive who is balancing her career with trying to find fulfillment in her marriage to a theatre director (Antonio).
Cracks in their marriage appear when new intern Samuel (Harris) makes his attraction to Romy clear and they begin to explore a ‘forbidden sexual dynamic’.
Director Halina Reijn is said to have wanted to put specific focus on the female orgasm in the thriller, with one charged scene showing Romy masturbating.
It is not the first time Nicole has starred in a steamy age-gap romance as she recently took on the leading role in Netflix’s A Family Affair alongside Zac Efron.
In the rom-com, the pair starred in one steamy nude scene together, with Nicole giving an insight into the filming process in a recent interview.
She told how she thinks it is ‘lazy’ to solely rely on chemistry when casting lovers as she weighed in on the topic of audition chemistry tests.
The pair couldn’t contain their laughter as they posed for snaps together
It is not the first time Nicole has starred in a steamy age-gap romance as she recently took on the leading role in Netflix’s A Family Affair alongside Zac Efron (pictured)
She told The Hollywood Reporter’s Drama Actress Roundtable: ‘There’s a way you can shoot things, I think just relying on chemistry is lazy. There’s the writing, there’s the interaction – you can literally be directed through it.’
‘Also, you can not have chemistry, and onscreen, it’s made,’ she added.
A Family Affair proved not to be a hit with critics, with claims later emerging that Nicole’s husband Keith Urban was ‘secretly’ pleased about its poor reception.
An insider told New Idea that it didn’t sit right with Keith, 56, seeing his wife get cosy with Zac, after the pair last portrayed lovers 12 years ago in the buzzy crime drama The Paperboy.
‘He absolutely trusts Nicole but it unnerved him seeing her get so cosy with Zac on-screen a second time around,’ the source said.
‘She likely won’t be doing a third, which, deep down, has made Keith happy to no end — something he’s having to keep to himself of course!’