Nicole Kidman is opening up about her new movie Babygirl and how the film's director made her feel comfortable during the film's most intimate scenes.
On Friday, Aug. 30, during a press conference held before the film's Venice Film Festival debut, the actress said filming sex scenes for the movie was different thanks to the writer and director, Halina Reijn.
"That's what made it so compelling, was being in the hands of Halina, because I knew she wasn't gonna exploit me," Kidman said at the time. "I mean, however anyone interprets that, I didn't feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it. It's the story that I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to tell. And every part of me was committed to that."
The actress went on to say that there "was enormous care taken" during the filming process, adding that the cast and crew were "all very, very gentle with each other and helped each other."
In the film, Kidman plays a high-powered CEO who decides to risk her career and her family so she can begin an illicit affair with her younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson.
In a previous interview with Vanity Fair, Kidman said starring in the erotic drama made her feel "very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being."
"There’s something in me going, 'Okay, this was made for the big screen and to be seen with people,'” she told the publication at the time. “But then I’m like, 'That’s a high-wire act. I’m not sure I have that much bravery.'
"I’ve made some films that are pretty exposing," she added, "but not like this.”
She went on to say that there were moments in the film when she didn't "want to be touched," adding that at one point she didn't "want to do this anymore."
“But at the same time I was compelled to do it. Halina would hold me and I would hold her, because it was just very confronting to me,” she added. "This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.…I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on," she continued. "'What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?'”
During the same Venice Film Festival press conference, Kidman clarified that the film follows "one woman's story," going on to say that she hopes it is a "very liberating story."
"It's told by a woman through her gaze...and that's what, to me, made it so unique," she added. "Suddenly I was gonna be in the hands of a woman with this material."
