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baby girl a director Halina Reijn defends the 29-year age gap between its lead actors, Nicole Kidman a Harris Dickinson.
In an interview with In a Magazine published on Wednesday, December 25, Reijn was asked to add to the pantheon of romantic films released this year that feature an older woman and a younger man. (Kidman herself starred in Netflix’s A Family Affair with Zac Efron like her love interestwhile Anne Hathaway Nicholas Galitzine swooned over in The Idea of You.)
“If we see a film where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that strange. Which is crazy. It should be completely normalized that the age gaps are changing 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 very difficult.”
In baby girlKidman, 57, plays a CEO who begins a steamy relationship with a young intern played by Dickinson, 28.
Although it’s been over for decades, Nicole Kidman’s marriage to Tom Cruise is still one of Hollywood’s most talked about relationships. While the Nine Perfect Strangers star has grown to keep her private life out of the spotlight, things were different when she married Cruise in 1990. “I was young. I think I offered it up?” (…)
Babygirl premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in August and Kidman has received critical acclaim for her performance.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published earlier this month, the The Oscar winner recalled being shocked by one early review of the film.
“I think it’s very liberating, this film. I hope it is,” he said. “I’ve had some people say it’s the most disturbing film they’ve ever seen, and I’m like, ‘Oh no, it’s bad by me.’”
For her part, Kidman relished the opportunity to play an older woman who embraced her sensual side.
“Women are often dismissed at a certain stage of their career as a sexual being. So, it was really nice to be seen like this,” the Oscar winner told THR. “From the moment I read yes, I was like, ‘Yes, this is a voice I haven’t seen, this is a place I haven’t been, I don’t think there have been audiences.’ My character has reached a stage where she has 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.”
What goes around comes around – even when it comes to dating trends. The term “cougar” originated in the early 2000s, describing an older woman seeking romantic companionship with a younger man. While great examples from the early 2000s – think: Demi Moore and Mariah Carey – caused the public to grab their pearls, (…)
Kidman also admitted that she felt it was a “raw and dangerous” film to make.
“I couldn’t believe they were giving us the money to do it,” he said, in part. “The sexuality of it. It’s not written for a 20-year-old. It wasn’t even written for a 30-year-old.”
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson
Niko TaverniseKidman’s costar Dickinson previously spoke about filming sex scenes with the legendary actress.
“We would have a discussion with the intimacy coordinator and then Nicole and I did our own thing with it once we set the parameters of what we were both comfortable with,” he said Variety in October. “The intimacy coordinator saying, ‘What are you comfortable with, what do you want as a director, what are you comfortable doing from that vision?’ They facilitate that and do it very carefully without interrupting the scene itself.”
