How Nicole Kidman embraced her sexiest role ever... at the age of 57

At the age of 57 and with an impressive career that spans roles from a taxidermist villain in Paddington to the romantic interest in Batman Forever and a courtesan in Moulin Rouge - you'd think Nicole Kidman would struggle to reach new heights.

Yet the Australian actress - who apparently feels 'sexier than ever' in midlife - has embraced her sexiest role yet for the erotic thriller Babygirl, released in UK cinemas on 10 January 2025.

Receiving rave reviews at this month's Venice Film Festival 2024, the production sees veteran star Nicole play a high-powered New York business executive who starts a risky affair with her much-younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson.

Speaking about her risqué role, the A-lister has admitted she felt 'vulnerable' filming the multiple scenes of masturbation, plus a depiction of a submissive/dominant relationship as part of the sex scenes.

Nicole has made nothing quite like it since the dream-like erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut with then-husband Tom Cruise 25 years ago - and she's even confessed that Babygirl is her 'most exposing' film to date.

In the steamy project, rising British star Harris Dickinson has a career-making turn as Samuel, the intern who works out that his boss (played by Nicole), the CEO of a tech firm, wants to be dominated.

The erotic thriller will include some very intimate scenes including one of Nicole's character masturbating after having sex with her husband, played by Antonio Banderas. 

Addressing the sex scenes, Nicola - who most recently starred in another age-gap romance, A Family Affair - admitted it is the most 'exposed' she has ever felt in front of the camera. 

Speaking to Vanity Fair prior to the production's Venice Film Festival premiere, Nicole admitted she wasn't sure whether she was 'brave enough' to watch the film on the big screen during the event.

'There's something in me going: 'Okay, this was made for the big screen and to be seen with people. I'm not sure I have that much bravery,' Nicole told the publication. 

'I've made some films that are pretty exposing, but not like this,' she added of the 'confronting' experience.

Nicole shared her apprehension over audiences seeing the sex scenes, admitting that the 'vulnerable' filming process left her feeling 'ragged'.

'It's like, golly, I'm doing this, and it's actually now going to be seen by the world. That's a very weird feeling,' she said.

'This is something you hide in your home videos. It's not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.'

Elsewhere, the actress said that an intimacy co-ordinator and closed set had been vital to conjuring the sex scenes which tell the story of her character's existential crisis, resolved through a taboo-busting sexual odyssey.

The actress said: 'I think this film is obviously yes about sex, but it's about desire it's about your inner thoughts, it's about secrets, it's about marriage, it's about truth, power, consent.

'This is one woman's story and this is I hope a very liberating story. It's told by a woman through her gaze. 

'It's Halina (Reijn's) script, she wrote it and she directs and that made it unique, that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very dear to our shared instincts and very, very freeing.'

She added: 'I don't think there's a judgement attached (about the character). It's for each person to react to Romy and the way she behaves. My connection to it is that I want to examine human beings, women, on screen, to explore what it means to be human in all the facets of that and the labyrinth of that.'

She said that she was: 'exposed and vulnerable and frightened when it comes to giving it to the world' but that her experience of making it had been: 'delicate and intimate and very deep.'

She said: 'I knew she wasn't going to exploit me. However anyone interprets that, I didn't feel exploited. I felt very much a part of that. There was enormous caretaking by all of us, we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and, at the same time, real.'

The film opens with Kidman's character, Romy Mathis, faking a very convincing orgasm while having sex with her husband, played by Antonio Banderas, and then going into another room and masturbating to pornography.

She explores her desire to be dominated with her intern but – unlike in previous erotic dramas such as Basic Instinct – female desire doesn't destroy her career or her family life and, without giving away the ending, she remains professionally powerful and married at its conclusion.

Earlier this year, a source close to the actress told DailyMail.com exclusively that Nicole feels 'sexier than ever' as she nears her 60th milestone.

The insider was speaking after the A-lister showed off her incredible figure in a racy backless gown at the New York premiere of her Amazon Prime Video series Expats. 

The dress was a throwback to a look that the Australian actress rocked on the red carpet 20 years before, at the 18th annual American Cinematheque tribute held in her honour.

A source close to Nicole - who is married to singer Keith Urban and mother of teenage twins Sunday and Faith, 15 and 13 - told DailyMail.com: 'Nicole feels sexier than ever being over 50 and showing skin - and her true fans applaud her for it.

'Nicole knows what people are saying and she is going to continue to push the boundaries with her outfit choices because she believes it is important for women to be proud of their bodies. 

'She is completely unapologetic for anything that she wears and laughs at any criticism that she may get over her daring choices. She is redefining the definition of what beauty is and showing that you don't have to be 20 to be sexy.'

The source added: 'Nicole knows who she is and she knows that she is healthy, fit and happy.'

Nicole previously opened up about her experiences navigating Hollywood as a woman in her fifties.

The star told Stellar's Something To Talk About podcast that after kicking up a stir with her controversial 2022 Vanity Fair micro skirt photoshoot, she's never let what other people think hold her back.

'I make the most random, crazy choices. I call it "teenage choices" because I don't ever think of the consequences,' she admitted.

'I have to be made to think of consequences half the time. Part of my brain just doesn't think like that.'

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She went on to say she makes all her fashion choices based on how she feels rather than what others say she should wear. 

'I just try to keep in that place, because otherwise I think you get scared or worried about what people think,' she added. 'In terms of people's reactions, I say don't tell me. I don't really want to know. It'll stop me from doing what I want to do.'

Babygirl sees Nicole take on the role of Romy, a business executive who is balancing her career with trying to find fulfillment in her marriage to a theatre director (Antonio).

Cracks in their marriage appear when new intern Samuel (Harris) makes his attraction to Romy clear and they begin to explore a 'forbidden sexual dynamic'.

Director Halina Reijn is said to have wanted to put specific focus on the female orgasm in the thriller, with one charged scene showing Romy masturbating.

It is not the first time Nicole has starred in a steamy age-gap romance as she recently took on the leading role in Netflix's A Family Affair alongside Zac Efron.

In the rom-com, the pair starred in one steamy nude scene together, with Nicole giving an insight into the filming process in a recent interview.

She told how she thinks it is 'lazy' to solely rely on chemistry when casting lovers as she weighed in on the topic of audition chemistry tests.

She told The Hollywood Reporter's Drama Actress Roundtable: 'There's a way you can shoot things, I think just relying on chemistry is lazy. There's the writing, there's the interaction - you can literally be directed through it.'

'Also, you can not have chemistry, and onscreen, it's made,' she added.

Hope Flynn, founder of female empowerment community and platform FeedMeFemale, recently discussed with FEMAIL how a slate of new films have been created that feature women having romances with younger men.

The expert said: 'Traditionally, romantic roles have always gone to younger actresses - and women who were 30+ didn’t even get a look in or were sidelined into playing supporting roles such as the mum or the older sister.

'The more we document and make relationships between older women and younger men visible, the more demand there will be for actresses in their 40s, 50s etc. 

'This change gives older actresses like Nicole Kidman and Anne Hathaway (who recently starred in The Idea Of You opposite love interest Nicholas Galitzine, 29) the opportunity for more leading roles.

'This "trend" also helps us to embrace the idea that women don’t lose their value or attractiveness with age and it’s nice to see this being reflected in Hollywood.'

Flynn concluded: 'Hollywood still has a long way to go in terms of casting but it’s a step in the right direction of representing older women. 

'And with roles such as Nicole Kidman's in Babygirl being created with her specifically in mind, this just shows you that there is very much an interest in "older" actresses and seeing that they contribute massive value to our screens.' 

Babygirl review: Nicole Kidman sizzles in this tale of passion and power across the age divide, writes BRIAN VINER 

Babygirl 

Verdict: A sexy, post #MeToo thriller

Rating:

One of the oddities of these post #MeToo years in Hollywood is that Lolita-style stories about older men falling for much younger women or even schoolgirls have practically disappeared – while the opposite dynamic is suddenly all the rage.

Hardly a month seems to pass without an older woman bedding a chap 25 years her junior, as if to right a century of cinematic wrongs.

Anyway, hot on the high heels of Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine getting it together in The Idea of You on Amazon Prime, and Nicole Kidman cavorting with Zac Efron in A Family Affair on Netflix, along comes Kidman again, entangled in more ways than one with 28-year-old British actor Harris Dickinson in the steamy psychosexual thriller Babygirl.

Here at the Venice Film Festival, air-conditioned cinemas are currently offering a blessed relief from hotter-than-usual weather. But last night's world premiere of Babygirl brought a different kind of sizzle.

Kidman has described it as the most 'exposing' performance she has ever given – which, considering 1999's Eyes Wide Shut, is quite a claim.

She plays Romy, a corporate hotshot who runs a thriving robotics company replacing warehouse staff with automatons, and making wise observations to her workforce such as 'one-day shipping has dramatically upped the ante'.

On the face of it she is as serenely successful at home as she is at work. Her dishy theatre director husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) seems only too delighted to cater to her somewhat vigorous sexual demands, and she to his. The family unit is completed by a couple of teenage daughters – not that Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn spends much time developing them. One of them is gay and the other likes dancing.

Still, Reijn has other matters to attend to, and gets down to them with arresting urgency. Filmmakers sometimes start their features with sound rather than pictures – a hubbub of people chatting, perhaps, or a lone dog barking in the street. Here, it's Romy evidently in the throes of sexual ecstasy, although she needs to look at online porn to finish the job. 'Exposing' indeed.

Later, on her way to work, Romy is struck by the sight of a young man calming a dangerous dog. The young man turns out to be Samuel (Dickinson), one of a new batch of company interns, who are duly ushered in to pay homage to Romy in her swanky office. She instantly clocks his good looks and his swagger, and soon enough she finds that she cannot resist him.

But Babygirl is not just the story of an illicit office affair across the age divide. Far more interestingly, it is about power and workplace politics. Samuel senses that Romy, whose job is telling others what to do, has a kinky yearning to be the one jumping to orders. So the CEO and the intern switch roles; the boss becomes the bossed.

That is far from the end of the affair. There are revelations and recriminations, ambitions thwarted, and hints that Romy's sexual psychoses are somehow connected with a strange childhood spent in cults and communes.

There is also an ending that couldn't possibly happen if this were a relationship between a male head honcho and a woman much lower on the corporate ladder. However, at the same time, I wonder if Heijn is being quite as counterintuitive as she thinks: this is still, for the most part, a story in which the man holds the cards.

Nevertheless, it is a smart, sexy film, brilliantly and boldly acted by Kidman and Dickinson, with first-class support from Banderas (who has spent most of his career being absolutely nobody's idea of a cuckold).

As for the almost-unmentionable, the alleged cosmetic work that sometimes seems to have limited Kidman's range of expressions from A only to about D, that is cleverly woven into the narrative. Romy is clearly the kind of woman who would make a friend of Botox.

On the subject of injections, for the rest of us here in Venice, after some so-so early films, Babygirl has given us just the shot of adrenaline we required.

Babygirl comes out in January