Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson on Babygirl’s same-sex kiss and taking shame out of sexuality (EXCLUSIVE)

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson’s new film Babygirl is about to hit UK cinemas – and it’s inspiring all sorts of conversations about sexuality.

Attitude recently sat down with the pair to discuss the Oscar-tipped, Halina Reijn-directed movie in which Romy, a powerful CEO, starts an S&M-infused affair with Samuel, her much younger intern.

Here, we chat to the actors about Romy’s same-sex kiss during a nightclub scene, Nicole’s third time playing the supportive mother of an LGBTQ child (after Boy, Erased and The Prom) and how Babygirl draws comparisons with Harris’s modern queer classic drama film, Beach Rats.

I loved the depiction of a power imbalanced sexual dynamic existing within a wider context of, for the most part, kindness and respect – I found that informative. I work for Attitude, the LGBTQ magazine; I write about sexuality for a living. It’s not always easy. Anything that starts intelligent, adult conversations about this subject and takes the shame out of it is amazing to me. Do you agree?

Harris: Absolutely.

Nicole: Yes. Helina, our director would agree. This comes from her heart. She wrote it and totally wants to eliminate the shame from certain aspects of sexuality. Particularly, say, for a woman, in Romy. But it’s genderless, actually, where you feel like you’re holding all these things in, and that you can’t whisper or say them to anyone, let alone act on them. It was interesting.

My interpretation of Beach Rats is: it’s about a man who has sex with men but rejects labels. It asks provocative questions about sexuality. Did that film help prepare you for this one?

Harris: I’m not sure. They’re posing similar questions in terms of labels, but different experiences. I think Samuel is wading around in a pool of unsurety around who he is and how he needs to act. He’s confused with his own darkness, which I think is something we all need to talk about more, maybe, and get help in navigating better. Yeah… I guess so.

I loved Babygirl‘s casual approach to queerness. The contrast between the daughter exploring sexuality at a young age, and the mother exploring it later in life and it having these big consequences. Were you aware of that contrast? Was it deliberate?

Nicole: No, because I’m coming at it more through Romy. Helina, when she was talking about the themes, she was also talking about the collision of generations, and what they’re teaching each other. I loved that. I even loved the scene where Esme [played by] Sophie Wilde, says: ‘I’m not going to cut you down. Because I need you. There’s too few role models for me, and I need you there. I need you to get yourself together. But I need you to stay on that pedal stool for me, because you’re my beacon.’ That was really unusual. Usually a scene like that in a film would be: ‘I’m going to destroy you.’ I liked that. And then I go and support her, and she goes on to, you know, and not through blackmail.

I’ve just come from the Wicked junkets. Wicked is all about a parent rejecting their child for being other. Nicole, this is at least your third time playing a supportive mother of an LGBTQ child. Which is lovely. I’m sure you’re too modest to recognise this, but do understand it sets a positive example to people, and that that’s a nice thing?

Nicole: I mean, I make my artistic choices knowing what I’m doing. So yeah, I would hope that. I love to be a bridge. Boy, Erased was very much…. I made that for that reason. So that there was a bridge for families that were not in a place of love for each other.

This is just my interpretation, but in the film, Romy is kissed by a woman in a nightclub…

Nicole: Or doesn’t Romy kiss her?

That’s what I was questioning as soon as I saw it. I wanted to watch the film again precisely to clarify that detail. Do you welcome audience interpretation that maybe there’s more for her to explore in terms of her sexuality?

Nicole: I think Romy’s at a place where – and that’s what that rave scene is meant to be – she’s just free. She’s been holding herself together, and that is a release. Helina always explained it as a massive pounding release. The way we shot it, it was like a rave. We had strobe lighting. It was crazy. We didn’t have a clue where the camera was half the time. There were hundreds and hundreds of people. We were getting pushed around. I didn’t want to get trampled! That was my main thrust of the scene. Harris would catch me!

Harris: There was one point, where I saw you through the crowd, and I feel like you’re one pull away from being on the floor!

Nicole: It was very, very wild, and I loved it! But I loved that Helina set that environment. And the extras she chose, also – we didn’t have a lot of money to make the film. We needed people who were just going to show up and really give all of themselves. That’s exciting in the filmmaking process. Passion for the subject matter, which this definitely had. I hope people go and see it. It will mean more films like this can be made.

Harris, what was the most valuable lesson you learned about acting from Nicole?

Nicole: Oh god. Don’t answer that!

Harris: No, I will. Can I?

Nicole: Go on. I won’t censor you.

Harris: Cover your ears! From early on, I was impressed with how much Nicole would try everything, and try stuff. She was unafraid to put it out there. Which not a lot of actors are. Which inspired a playfulness to the set. Everyone was sort of like, we’re going to really try and make a good thing here. That helps, when the person at the top is setting that precedent.

Nicole: I like to be playful.

Harris: It’s important.

Nicole, Babygirl is your fourth big, buzzy projects out this year alone. How do you find the time for life balance?

Nicole: Everything’s come out at once. Even though everything was filmed over the course of three years! As an actor you don’t control the release dates on things. It was weird when they said: ‘This will be coming out, this will be coming out…’ ‘Uh, OK!’ It’s always going: ‘I need to the time to nourish.’ That would be how I put it. Finding whatever does that for you. My family does that for me. So I can go and I’m nourished in my home. I have a warm, loving nourishing home. And great kids, who I’m very close to. And a husband I’m very close to. That is a huge help. And a sister, who’s like my twin sister, even though she isn’t, and she has six kids. We’re a big family. But we’re very, very tight.

Babygirl is out on Friday 10 January 2025.