For “Babygirl”, Nicole Kidman says she experienced “like a sexual burnout” and we understand why

CINEMA – Enough is enough. Nicole Kidman headlines Babygirlin theaters this Wednesday, January 15. The feature film by Dutch director Halina Reijn features the actress in a (really) very sensual role. The shooting of the film, in which we also find the British actor Harris Dickinson (Iron Claw), experienced the Australian star in an unprecedented way. And it wasn’t necessarily worth it.

In BabygirlNicole Kidman plays Romy, a brilliant fifty-year-old business leader with a seemingly perfect life. She is married to Jacob, an attractive director played by Antonio Banderas, and mother of two teenage daughters. Her well-ordered life is derailed the day she meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a new intern in her company, whom she must supervise.

Romy begins an affair with the young man who is half her age, and upon contact with him, frees herself. She dares, for the first time in her life, to assume and live her fantasy of domination that she has always hidden from her husband.

Sex overdose

The film therefore includes, logically, many sex scenes and orgasms. With Jacob (in which Romy simulates), masturbation scenes, and with Samuel in which she gives free rein to her impulses and enjoys ” for real “. Nicole Kidman therefore had to play multiple intimate scenes during filming. In an interview with the Sun in October, the actress who nevertheless has in her filmography Eyes Wide Shutrevealed to have made “ like a burnout ».

“There was a lot of sharing and trust, then frustration (…) I no longer wanted to be touched,” said the actress, explaining that she had sometimes asked to stop because of the physical and emotional fatigue that these scenes gave her. “There were times during filming where I was like, ‘I don’t want to have an orgasm anymore. Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I never get touched again in my life ’», assured the actress to the British tabloid.

The “sexual burnout” experienced by Nicole Kidman gave her a Golden Globe nomination and a best actress award at the National Board of Review gala. But it is not without consequences for the spectator. He also finds himself, in fact, a little overwhelmed by this overflow of intimate scenes. Sequences also often devoid of a real erotic tension to which the 7th art has accustomed us, unlike for example the very successful remake ofEmmanuelle released this fall.

A too bland “erotic thriller”

Babygirl is definitely not a “sexy” film, contrary to what the trailer and promotion of the film suggested. It’s a bias, the sexual act – although very present – is not the subject of the Dutch director’s film. The seduction phase is also very (too?) fleeting. Halina Reijn’s feature film centers on Romy’s desire, an oppressed desire of which she is ashamed, but which she frees alongside her young intern.

The business manager is driven by the fantasy of being dominated physically and psychologically, that of being under the influence of others. Which Samuel understands immediately and works to put in place as best he can, even if he is also a novice in the matter, by giving her orders and treating her privately like an animal. of companionship.

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson each deliver a remarkable acting performance, in the skin of Romy and Samuel, both beginner sadomasochists. Probably much more realistic, more perilous, and in any case much more confusing than many other films of the genre, Babygirl will not please most people. The film unfortunately (and paradoxically) lacks a little spice.

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