Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl Lands In UK Cinemas This Weekend

This weekend, Nicole Kidman’s steamy age-gap erotic thriller Babygirl will finally land in UK cinemas after debuting across the Atlantic on Christmas day. Mirroring iconic 1980s/90s flicks like Fatal Attraction (1987), Crimes of Passion (1984) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999), the sub/dom film is causing quite the stir on social media, including one particular scene involving a glass of milk. But is Babygirl based on a true story? Created and directed by Dutch star Halina Reijn, here’s the real story underpinning the illicit action.

Nicole Kidman & Harris Dickinson in Babygirl. (Niko Tavernise/A24)

Is Babygirl Based On A True Story?

Babygirl is an original story by writer and director Halina Reijn – but there is some truth to the story. For one, the initial idea was sparked by a friend of Reijn, ‘who was in a 25-year marriage and had never had an orgasm with her husband’. But Reijn drew on her own experiences, too. Namely, the now infamous milk scene: Romy receives a mysterious glass of milk at a restaurant, only to realise her intern Samuel ordered it for her. She chugs without question, earning a ‘good girl’ from Samuel – and a wince from audiences. That much lactose in the midst of a steamy courtship? Anything could happen… It seems bizarre, but Reijn wrote this scene drawing on real events in her own life. ‘The milk is, of course, an archetype,’ she told IndieWire. ‘We’ve seen it in other movies. It is a great symbol of animalistic sides of ourselves. It happened to me.

‘I was playing in Belgium onstage, and I got offstage, and I had a really good run,’ Reijn explains. ‘I felt really good about myself for one night in my life. All my colleagues were like, “No, we’re going to bed.” They’re all boring. I was all alone. I went to a bar, and I ordered something boring like a Diet Coke because I didn’t drink at that time because I was a control freak. There was this young Belgian actor — I can’t say who it is — but he was famous. I knew of him. I’d never spoken to him. He was at least 15 years younger than I, and he ordered me a glass of milk.

‘I thought it was an incredible, hot thing to do, and so courageous, and so I wanted to reward him by drinking the whole thing, and I did,’ Reijn says. ‘It did make me a little nauseated, to be honest with you, because it was cow milk.’

Did a steamy, whirlwind tryst ensue as we see with Romy and Samuel? No – and the Belgian actor didn’t even call Reijn ‘good girl’. ‘I wish he did,’ she admits. ‘He just walked out. I didn’t have sex with him or anything. But when I was writing, I did think that was one of the most arousing moments of my life. There wasn’t even touching. That is what fascinates me about sex. To me, real, shocking sex is often not at all two bodies banging into each other. To me, real, shocking sex is about what is in the mind. It’s all suggestion. It’s all imagination. [Romy] crawling around on a dirty carpet with stains and licking a little bit of candy out of his hand, and him petting her like she’s an animal — that, to me, is really sexy. Real sex acts to me onscreen are quite boring, which is why we only have two short moments of that.’

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Babygirl arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 10 January 2025.