NICOLE KIDMAN has admitted she was so “turned on” by her sexy new role that at one point she had to pause filming.
Babygirl sees the Oscar-winning actress playing a high-powered married company boss who falls for a kinky young intern.
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The erotic thriller has 57- year-old Nicole stripping naked and longing to be dominated in the bedroom by the near-stranger.
In the film, released here on January 10, new employee Samuel tells Nicole’s character, workaholic CEO Romy, the first rule is, “I tell you what to do and you do it”.
Those orders include Romy getting down on her hands and knees to lap milk from a saucer and stuffing Samuel’s tie in her mouth.
In a revealing new interview, Nicole says that performing the scenes with young British actor Harris Dickinson, who plays the intern, and Antonio Banderas, as her husband, Jacob, was often too much to cope with.
She says: “There was an enormous amount of sharing and trust and then frustration.
“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.
“Don’t come near me.
“I hate doing this.
“I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life!
“I’m over it.’
“It was so present all the time for me that it was almost like a burnout.”
It is far racier than her recent starring role in the hit Netflix drama The Perfect Couple, which included a scene where on-screen husband Liev Schreiber makes love to her in front of a window at their packed family holiday home.
Mother-of-four Nicole has pushed the boundaries before when choosing her roles, having appeared in an orgy scene in 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut with then-husband Tom Cruise and engaging in a disturbing bedroom game with Colin Farrell in Killing Of A Sacred Deer in 2017.
But Babygirl is considered to be her raunchiest performance yet.
At a recent press conference in Los Angeles, Harris, 28, from East London, told how he needed time out from the intense role.
The actor, who starred in the third Kingsman film, The King’s Man, and acclaimed satire Triangle Of Sadness, would tell the crew and his co-stars: “OK, everyone — go away for a second” if “we weren’t comfortable”.
There is already an Oscar buzz around Nicole’s highly charged portrayal of Romy.
One minute she is giving orders to her staff at a robotics company, the next she is putty in Samuel’s hands.
The thriller is written and directed by Halina Reijn who also brought us 2022 black comedy horror Bodies Bodies Bodies starred Pete Davidson and Amandla Stenberg.
Nicole had been wanting to work with the female Dutch director for years so when Halina came to her with Babygirl she was immediately interested.
Nicole recalls: “I read the script and I thought it was so funny.
Racy moments
“But I also was turned on by it. I was also sort of hypnotised.”
Halina was inspired by the 1992 Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas thriller Basic Instinct and by hearing about a woman who had never experienced sexual pleasure during her 25-year marriage.
Nicole met Harris prior to filming beginning in New York last December.
She recalls: “A lot of it was just talking about ourselves, which is a really great way for actors to come together, because you share things.”
When they did start shooting, the director would act out most of the parts for her cast.
Nicole continues: “She’d be throwing herself around the room in the rehearsal space, playing all the roles — I’d never experienced that before.”
There were times when we were shooting where I was like, ‘I don’t want to orgasm any more. Don’t come near me. I hate doing this. I don’t care if I am never touched again in my life! I’m over it’
Nicole Kidman
The cast needed an intimacy coordinator for the sex scenes, which include the couple getting together during a late-night swim.
But Nicole made sure they weren’t “confined” by the coordinator telling them what they could or couldn’t do.
She explains: “I’m a huge believer still in the sacredness of the set or the actors’ space, and it never, never being violated.
“Because it’s ours, it’s the bubble, and then there’s the world outside.”
The Hollywood beauty has chosen to work with female directors, because that part of the industry is still male-dominated.
And Nicole doesn’t think she could have performed the racy moments so well if a man was behind the camera giving orders, as the late Stanley Kubrick did on Eyes Wide Shut.
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That was because she could talk about her most “secret desires” with Halina.
She says: “I don’t think I could have done it, working with a man.
“I actually think the only way I could do this was with her because the two of us would sit and talk.
“We talked about so many things and still do, that is so secretive and vulnerable — but it’s safe.”
Nicole made her movie debut aged 16 in 1983 Australian festive drama Bush Christmas and has told in the past how she experienced “#MeToo moments — since I was little”.
But she reckoned she was protected from the sexual harassment experienced by many actresses thanks to her marriage to Cruise.
I’m a huge believer still in the sacredness of the set or the actors’ space, and it never, never being violated. Because it’s ours, it’s the bubble, and then there’s the world outside
Nicole Kidman
The couple wed in 1990 and had two children Isabella, 31, and 29-year-old Connor.
By the time Nicole and the Top Gun star divorced in 2001, she was a major power in the industry herself.
Five Oscar nominations, including one win for The Hours in 2003, means directors are desperate to work with her.
Nicole’s clout also means she can choose whether she wishes to wear revealing clothes in a film or not.
And she can decide to play a part where she has to get down on all fours and do what a man tells her in a BDSM relationship, as with Babygirl.
Nicole says: “Being in the hands of Halina I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me.
“I didn’t feel exploited.
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“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.
“There was enormous care taken by all of us.
“We were all very, very gentle with each other and helped each other — Harris, Antonio.”
The best part of making Babygirl, though, for Nicole was going clubbing for one scene.
She says: “My favourite day was the rave, because I got to go to a rave.
“We played loud music and I got to just go wild.
“And at that point in the film when we were doing it, it was just so needed — that feeling of full release.”
The in-demand star has plenty of projects coming up, including playing the fictional forensic pathologist title character in TV series Kay Scarpetta, and in an Amazon Prime thriller titled Holland, Michigan.
Unfortunately, when you have a family at home and everything, there has to be a sort of agreement that’s made where you go, ‘I’m now going to go into this and I’m asking your permission to let me go
Nicole Kidman
But she has to pick her roles carefully, because it means being away from husband Keith Urban and their daughters Sunday Rose, 16, and Faith, 13.
The family live on a ranch in Memphis, Tennessee, and Nicole always has to come to an agreement with husband Keith before committing to major work projects.
Award-winning country star Keith also needs to find time to perform and record his music.
Nicole says: “Unfortunately, when you have a family at home and everything, there has to be a sort of agreement that’s made where you go, ‘I’m now going to go into this and I’m asking your permission to let me go’.
“And I have teenage children who understand it and a husband who’s also an artist.
“So there’s a releasing of you into your artistic life and then you come back to your home and your real life.
“But there is a sort of letting go that’s required.”