[imageesource:a24]

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson’s latest film, Babygirl, has everyone talking—and sweating under the collar.

The erotic thriller, described as “delicious, spiky, sexy and daring” (per The New York Times), explores an age-gap relationship in which a woman in a position of power embarks on a sexual affair with her intern. Then, the power dynamics flip, and the steam rises.

The movie’s official plot synopsis reads: “A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with a much younger intern.” Kidman plays Romy, said CEO, whose marriage is on the rocks, and Harris Dickinson stars as the intern Samuel, who is also Romy’s dominating partner.

Dickinson dished on how he and Kidman freestyled some of their steamy sex scenes with the help of an intimacy coordinator, per Page Six:

“The intimacy coordinator is saying, ‘What are you comfortable with, what do you want as a director, what are you comfortable doing from that vision?’ They’re facilitating that and doing it very delicately without interrupting the actual scene,” he said to Variety.

Kidman chimed in during the interview, admitting she felt the most challenging part of making the film was “actually doing it justice and trying to be open and raw and available each day in every which way to explore.”

“Because the nature of that film, it was either going to be completely vulnerable and exposed, or you were going to be protected, and then the thing wouldn’t connect.”

The “Big Little Lies” star continued, “When I met with [Director Halina Reijn], and we talked through it, I was just like, ‘Just give us a safe space,’ and then, ‘Please don’t make me look like a fool.’”

In another interview with PEOPLE, Kidman called the role “liberating” but said she had to pause filming at one point due to the intensity of the sex scenes and days of endless touch. She also told the Sun that she nearly experienced “burnout” from having to fake orgasms so many times on camera.

“There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to [imitate] orgasm any more,’” the 57-year-old actress said.

She said she was so present all the time that “for me, it was almost like a burnout”, describing how vehemently she did not want to be touched anymore.

“There was an enormous amount of sharing and trust and then frustration,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Don’t touch me.’ There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more.’”

She also talked about really going there, as well as the importance of having a woman in charge.

“There’s a sort a ‘jump off the cliff’ thing where you go, Okay, I’m just going to abandon everything and explore this with the people that I trust in a genre that is already set, but hopefully we can explore new territory and especially with female at the helm,” she said.

Babygirl director Halina Reijn was inspired by the sexual thriller Basic Instinct, which starred Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, about a woman who hadn’t been sexually satisfied in her marriage.

Watch the yummy trailer:

Looking back on the experience, Kidman recalls the discomfort and complexity around being so openly sexual in the film, saying that she “never came out of it, really.”

“I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being. I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on. What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?”

Well, she made a really hot movie is the answer.

It seems female-led age-gap relationship films are a fad right now. Not only is this Kidman’s second movie centred around the trope – earlier this year she starred in A Family Affair alongside Zac Efron as her love interest – there was also Anne Hathaway, who blew us all away in rom-com smash The Idea of You, in which she plays a 40-something divorcée who begins an affair with a 20-something pop star.

A24 will release Babygirl in theatres on December 25. Merry Christmas to all.

[source:pagesix&glamour]