Actress Nicole Kidman feels ‘exposed and vulnerable’ as sex drama hits Venice

Photo: Reuters

Nicole Kidman (pic) brought her erotic drama Babygirl to the Venice Film Festival on Aug 30, saying she felt exposed and nervous as the controlled intimacy of the set gets projected onto the big screen before a global audience.

The 57-year-old Australian actress has made a string of risque films throughout her career, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), which premiered in Venice 25 years ago. But she told reporters she was highly anxious about the reaction to her latest movie.

Kidman plays a successful New York chief executive, Romy, who jeopardises both her career and her family by having a torrid affair with a young, opportunistic intern.

“Making it with these people here, it was delicate and intimate and very, very deep,” said Kidman, sitting alongside Dutch director Halina Reijn, Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, who plays her husband, and English actor Harris Dickinson, who portrays her lover.

“But this definitely leaves me exposed and vulnerable and frightened... when it’s given to the world,” she added. “We’re all a bit nervous, so I was like, I hope my hands aren’t shaking.”

Shot by a female director, Babygirl brings a woman’s gaze to the erotic thriller genre as she explores Romy’s darkest fantasies that she cannot fulfil within the confines of her apparently successful marriage.

“I’m very delighted to be able to make a film about female desire, but it’s also a film about a woman in an existential crisis, and it has many layers,” said Reijn, whose earlier movies included the 2022 comedy horror Bodies Bodies Bodies.

Babygirl reveals profound differences in the ways younger and older generations view sex in a city where political correctness reigns.

“I think there is in general a confusion about how to conduct yourself within sex as well,” Dickinson said, praising the work of the intimacy coordinator who helped the actors overcome their natural boundaries.

“It’s always nerve-racking constructing a scene anyway, so then you add something intimate to it, and it’s very vulnerable,” said the 28-year-old.

Setting the tone for the film, Babygirl opens with a close-up of Kidman as she fails to achieve an orgasm with her husband, launching her search for satisfaction elsewhere.

“The huge orgasm gap still exists, people. Take note, men,” Reijn said to laughs, adding that she hoped her movie would “function as a tribute to self-love and liberation”.

Kidman, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002), has worked with many leading male directors of her generation, but she said she decided some years ago to promote women film-makers, such as Reijn.

“I’m going to put my weight behind a lot of women now, in terms of directors, to try and change the ratio,” she said.

Six of the 21 films in the main competition at Venice were directed by women, including Babygirl. In 2023, five out of 23 competition movies had female directors. – Reuters