Nicole Kidman and director Halina Reijn JC Olivera/WireImage
Babygirl director Halina Reijn revealed she drew inspiration from her real life for Nicole Kidman’s milk scene.
Reijn, 49, told W Magazine in an interview published on Wednesday, December 25, that a famous Belgian actor “way, way younger” than her sent her a glass of milk from across a bar. The incident happened when Reijn, who is also a stage actress, was in her 30s at the time and had gone to a bar following a theatrical performance in her home country of the Netherlands.
“I drank it, and he just walked out,” she said. “I thought, ‘How does this guy get the courage?’ I did think it was a very sensual thing to do. And I thought it was very funny.’”
In a scene from the film, CEO Romy (Kidman) accepts a glass of milk from intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) at a bar. Romy proceeds to drink the milk and stare at Samuel, who looks back at her. The movie, which was released on Wednesday, follows their illicit relationship.
Nicole Kidman A24
While reflecting on the movie, Reijn got candid about Babygirl being added to the list of films being released about age-gap romances between an older woman and a younger man. (Kidman, 57, starred in Netflix’s A Family Affair with Zac Efron, while Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine portrayed love interests in Prime Video’s The Idea of You.)
“If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane. It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships,” Reijn said. “We’re not trapped in a box anymore. We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It’s really hard.”
Kidman, for her part, noted that “a lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being.”
Monica Schipper/Getty Images Babygirl director Halina Reijn is defending the 29-year age gap between her lead actors, Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. In an interview with W Magazine published on Wednesday, December 25, Reijn was asked about adding to the pantheon of romantic movies released this year that feature an older woman and a younger […]
“So, it was really beautiful to be seen in this way,” she told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “From the minute I read it, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a voice I haven’t seen, this is a place that I haven’t been, I don’t think audiences have been.’ My character has reached a stage where she’s got all this power, but she’s not sure who she is, what she wants, what she desires, even though she seems to have it all. And I think that’s really relatable.”
Kidman admitted that she felt Babygirl was a “raw and dangerous” film to create. “I couldn’t believe they were giving us the money to make it,” she said, in part. “The sexuality of it. That it wasn’t written for a 20-year-old. It wasn’t written even for a 30-year-old.”
Babygirl is in theaters now.
