Nicole Kidman's Babygirl director defends age gap drama

Nicole Kidman's Babygirl director has hit out to defend the age-gap storyline shown in the film.

The erotic thriller has been causing headlines since it debuted at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year with Kidman, 57, appearing in sex-scenes opposite Harris Dickinson, 28.

Writer and director Halina Reijn has taken aim at Hollywood to slam films for turning a blind eye to the way male characters are portrayed while treating female characters less equally.

She told The Hollywood Reporter, "If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane.

"It should completely be normalised that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships. We're not trapped in a box anymore. We internalise the male gaze, we internalise patriarchy and we need to free ourselves from it. It's really hard."

Kidman previously defended the film during an earlier conversation with the publication, saying, "A lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being.

"So it was really beautiful to be seen in this way. From the minute I read it, I was like, 'Yeah, this is a voice I haven't seen, this is a place that I haven't been, I don't think audiences have been.'

"My character has reached a stage where she's got 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."

Babygirl is released in the UK on Friday 10 January 2025.