“I have never reached such extremes”

Nicole Kidman is a paradox. A remarkable actress, star with “old Hollywood” postures, she is also an elusive character, a sort of cinematic extension of the contemporary arty scene – her appearances at Balenciaga shows are hypnotizing. When she films, she favors independent and singular voices (Lee Daniels, Sofia Coppola, Park Chan-wook, Yórgos Lánthimos…) but happily has fun in blockbusters or series (Aquaman, A perfect couple). Mysterious. Untouchable. Fascinating. Thirty-five years after her debut, she remains one of the major and influential figures of American cinema. For its ability to surprise and conquer risky – even undermined – territories.

In Babygirl, it is female pleasure and gender dynamics that she explores and subverts. In front of the camera of the Dutch Halina Reijn, the actress plays an accomplished fifty-year-old, CEO of a large company, in love with her husband, mother of two daughters. The only downside: her sexual frustration, from which she manages to free herself with a young intern, receptive to her fantasies of submission. “The idea was to take the opposite view of male gaze, to change paradigms,” says the director, former actress with Paul Verhoeven (Black Book) “I needed an actress with the strength and courage necessary to take on the ambiguity of my heroine, her poise as well as her fragilities.”

No role had so reflected Kidman’s ambivalence. His character’s combination of confidence and doubt, his addiction to control and his provocative escapes are also his own. But we still had to assume the setting. Sexy satire of political correctness and power, Babygirl contains scenes of simulation, masturbation, submission. “Nicole is the best actress on the planet,” emphasizes Halina Reijn. Only passion and sincerity drive him. When she arrives on set, she leaves her ego at the door. She has neither vanity nor fear.”

In Eyes Wide Shut, Rabbit Hole, Birth, Paperboy or The Hours (an Oscar to boot), the 57-year-old actress already embraced the ambiguity, the radicality, the darkness of alternative and complex female experiences. Awarded an acting prize at the Venice Film Festival, her performance in Babygirl will also be a milestone in her career and the specter of a new feminine on the screens. Until, perhaps, earning him a second Oscar…

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“I don’t want to have any more orgasms”: why Nicole Kidman sometimes interrupted filming Babygirl

Extreme

“A character like that of Babygirl, coming to this point in your life and career, it’s phenomenal. I’ve acted in many, many films, but none of them have been so interested in our gray areas, in how we must embrace them in order to fully accept ourselves. Or, when they did, they also told the male point of view. Babygirl is a revolutionary film which, I hope, will open the way to other innovative stories in the way of approaching the sexual morality of women, their desire, their pleasure, the understanding of their needs, their relationship to power, to their body, or self-sabotage. From a strictly personal point of view, I am not looking for healing or catharsis with this film, nor with any other. But I’ve never gone to such extremes for a role, I’ve never had to share so much, and probably I’ll never do it again… Many actresses would tell you: this kind of opportunity is rare. »

Transgression

“Pushing my limits has never been my motivation. I never phrased things that way. I simply want the roles to reflect what our life can be, that the way we look at a subject challenges me and provokes a reaction in me. But I don’t think in terms of courage or surpassing oneself: that would be to intellectualize my work when my approach has always been very visceral. In this case, I just needed to make this film, I was like magnet…”

Subversion

“I’m called bold? I must just be wired differently. (She laughs.) I always believe I have been free, since childhood. I was fascinated by stories that were considered immoral, dark, transgressive. I built myself with Russian literature, Dostoyevsky for example, French authors like Guy de Maupassant, but also the classic tragedies of Ibsen, Chekhov and Shakespeare.

No doubt they shaped my brain and my heart in a particular way: turning in Babygirl today seems no more subversive to me than acting in a Greek tragedy did back then. I was only motivated by one thing: as a woman and an actress, I could not do without Halina’s gaze, which excludes all judgment and moral stereotypes.

Policy

“We are not trying to be militant or radical with this film. On the contrary, it was made in the purest form, with passion, love and the desire to reconcile women with their dark side. And then, when we say that a film is political, what does that mean? I feel like it’s another word to put us in boxes. With Babygirl, I just wanted this woman who is going through an existential crisis and revealing herself to be authentic. That, under the leadership of Halina, she helps
women to continue their path as best as possible.”

Vulnerability

“I had only experienced such intimacy with the public on Big Little Lies. People told me secret parts of their lives after watching the series. It’s incredible how art can create connections. At the end of the screenings of Babygirl, some run away, embarrassed, and don’t dare look at us, but others, couples for example, come to confide, as if Halina and I were sexologists. It’s even crazier since we’re both quite prudish. Everything that the film raises about desire and sexuality is not a subject that I naturally talk about. I still feel vulnerable in this place.”

Mystery

“We worked with an intimacy coordinator for the nude and sex scenes, which, when you look closely, are ultimately few in the film and suggest more than they show. Halina and this coach, however, perfectly ensured our comfort and safety, but I don’t like to talk about it too much: I don’t want to dilute the point of the film, which must remain a sensory and emotional experience. Revealing behind the scenes
its creation means breaking the magic.

However, mystery is not only what makes it fascinating, but it is also the very essence of eroticism. Our voice must be heard for the film to exist, but I believe that we must set limits in what we wish to share. Otherwise we completely demystify cinema and risk diminishing the experience for the viewer.”

Inspiration

“I love Isabelle Huppert. The way she chooses her films, constructs her filmography, and invests herself in her characters is remarkable. Her tenacity, her ability to go further and her refusal to be conditioned or crushed by self-righteousness are incredibly inspiring. In this profession, our choices can be questionable when they go outside the box or shake up morals, and we have to be ready to roll with the punches. It is a component of the artistic path and of an era that loves controversy. Making choices with possible criticism and attacks in mind would amount to depriving oneself of freedom and hindering one’s development.”

Privacy

“In my career, I have always let my instinct speak rather than my head. Otherwise I would have missed out on exciting roles. There is of course fear, but differently, elsewhere. At the last Venice Film Festival, for example, I feared that the film would be reduced to something sulphurous, that people would try to make us feel ashamed. But society has evolved and better supports the emancipation of women. And then, whatever their generation or sexual orientation, the viewer can feel concerned by the issues of Babygirl.

We all have intimate secrets that can generate confusion and suffocate us: how, for example, can we accept that we alternately want to be submissive and dominated? Or make others understand that submission is not necessarily synonymous with humiliation? Through my character, Halina treats these subjects with subtlety and complexity, qualities that I often find in European directors.

Transmission

“I am sensitive to singular voices because they educated me. My mother often took me to the theater, the museum or the opera, of which she was a fan. I can still see myself, sitting between my parents, watching subversive plays that I didn’t always understand. We then dissected
the show together to help me understand the sometimes very strong emotions that it had aroused in me. This shaped my outlook, my thoughts, and art remains a great source of inspiration for me. Before turning Babygirl, I went to see an exhibition on Louise Bourgeois in Australia: the way the scenography allowed us to understand her work, her freedom, her gray areas greatly influenced the way I approached my role.

I needed to make this film, I was drawn to it…

Nicole Kidman

It seems essential to me to receive an artistic culture or to build it oneself to do this job. Watching videos on TikTok is not enough, although they can educate the younger generation about certain things. I am the mother of two teenage girls who protect me from the “disconnected dinosaur” side and help me understand the benefits and mechanisms of networks, but the multiplication of learning channels seems essential to me.”

Feminism

“I can’t define this term today, but I was raised by a mother who accompanied the movement in the 1970s, in a fundamental period for women’s rights. She explained to me that it was important that I could be treated as equal with men, that I had rights that women of her generation had not had, that I deserved to have access to as much opportunities than men. She taught me to go for it, not to be ashamed of who I was.

I am the product of this feminism: I feel like I can try anything. I’m sometimes wrong but I don’t forbid myself anything. I raise my daughters in this spirit, and I also try to give them an education, like my mother did with me. This education remains one of my greatest strengths. She helped me build my career and today, thanks to her, I have the chance to make my voice heard.”

Babygirlby Halina Reijn, with Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson… Released January 15.