Babygirl: What To Expect From Nicole Kidman’s New Erotic Thriller

An unexpected hit on the film festival circuit, Babygirl has everyone talking. Starring Nicole Kidman as a high powered CEO opposite Harris Dickinson as her intern, this erotic thriller is striking, sexy and sensual, and is a new addition to movieland’s intriguing older woman, younger man romance roster. Here’s what to expect.

Babygirl: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

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

What Is Babygirl About?

Babygirl centres on Romy (Kidman), a high powered CEO who is unexpectedly compelled by a new intern at her company, Samuel (Dickinson). A mother and a wife living in New York City, Romy is carefully controlled and hyper aware of how she’s perceived in her male-dominated field. Meeting Samuel sparks repressed desire in Romy, and their passionate affair descends into a torrid obsession, exploring power dynamics and sexuality in the workplace as well as within age gap relationships. As Romy attempts to preserve her polished facade, Samuel continues to pull down her carefully constructed walls.

Created and directed by filmmaker Halina Rejin, Babygirl bears resemblance to sexual thrillers of the ‘90s, from 9½ Weeks to Basic Instinct to The Piano Teacher. ‘Those movies, when I saw them, [made me realise], “Oh, actually, it’s not so crazy, all these things that are going on in my head!”,’ Rejin says. ‘These movies are super dear to me, but of course they are almost all directed by men, all written by men.

‘I really decided in the beginning, I want to make a sexual film, just as sexual as all these films that I’ve always admired so much, but now I’m going to do it completely through female eyes,’ Rejin adds. ‘What does that mean and what does that look like?’

‘I’ve made many sexual films, but this is different,’ Kidman adds. ‘Doing this subject matter in the hands of the woman that wrote the script, that’s directing it and is a really great actress herself – we became one in a weird way, which I’d never had with a director before. When you’re working with a woman on this subject matter, you can share everything with each other.’ Having debuted at Venice International Film Festival earlier this year, Kidman has already bagged the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in Babygirl.

Babygirl Trailer

A24 has unveiled the official full-length trailer for Babygirl, soundtracker by an eerie Nutcracker tune. Watch it below.

The Cast

• Nicole Kidman as Romy
• Harris Dickinson as Samuel
• Antonio Banderas as Jacob
• Sophie Wilde as Esme
• Gaite Jansen as Hedda Scarlett
• Izabel Mar as Anna
• Esther McGregor as Isabel
• Vaughan Reilly as Nora
• Victor Slezak as Mr. Missel
• Anoop Desai as Robert
• Bartley Booz as Tom
• Maxwell Whittington-Cooper as Josh
• Leslie Silva as Hazel
• Dolly Wells as Therapist

An actor herself, before going on stage earlier in her career, Rejin would try to channel Kidman. ‘Because, of course, what everybody agrees on is that her career from the start had this theme of fearlessness,’ Reijn says. ‘That, to a lot of young women and older women, is incredibly inspiring. Whether you’re an actress or not an actress, you’re just watching her and thinking, how did she dare to do that?’ The perfect Romy, then. ‘I did think she would be one of the very few people who would bring the courage to a character like this,’ Rejin says. ‘It’s not necessarily from the start a very likeable character. She has a lot of layers. You have to be able to play all those different roles.’

Meanwhile, Rejin was inspired to cast Dickinson as Samuel thanks to his adept duality: ‘he can look in one shot like a 12-year-old little boy, and then in the next, he’s a man, a totally confident 45-year-old guy,’ Rejin says. ‘It looks almost like it’s improvised but it’s not. It’s so hard to do.’

Antonio Banderas & Nicole Kidman in Babygirl. (A24)

Babygirl Release Date

Babygirl will land in US cinemas nationwide on 25 December 2024.

Here in the UK, Babygirl will arrive in cinemas on 10 January 2025.