'Babygirl' achieved "more extreme sex scenes" thanks to having an intimacy coordinator, says director Halina Reijn.
The filmmaker behind A24’s erotic workplace thriller - in which Nicole Kidman plays CEO Romy, who puts her career and family at risk when she embarks on an affair with intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) - insists that without hiring Lizzy Talbot, they wouldn’t have been able to capture the “risky” scenes.
Reijn told IndieWire: “You can get more extreme sex scenes that look way more risky than when you’re thinking ‘no, let the actresses find out themselves.'
“That’s such a dated idea of what sexuality is and how to approach it. I really am against it.”
The flick’s director-and-writer is miffed as to why anyone would refuse to work with an intimacy coordinator, because they are not only there for safeguarding, but they also enable the actors to step outside of their comfort zone and film scenes that bring them “discomfort” in a safe space.
She went on: “I’m also against people who are saying, ‘No, my actors didn’t want an intimacy coordinator.’ That makes no sense. It is also for your safety as a director and for everyone. What if there is a misunderstanding? It’s just amazing to have a person like that on set. And if you are creative and talented enough of a director, you can pull it off. Trust me. You just have to go a little bit through your own discomfort and then you will discover a whole new world of creativity and possibilities."
Kidman, who landed a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her portrayal of Romy, recently praised the director for making her and her co-stars feel protected on set.
She told PEOPLE: “There’s a sort of a jump off the cliff thing where you go, okay, I’m just going to abandon everything and explore this with the people that I trust in a genre that is already set, but hopefully we can explore new territory and especially with the female at the helm.
“You have your director at the helm going, ‘I will protect you. Nothing that’s going to be in the film will be anything that you are not comfortable with. You are going to be okay.’”
Nicole recently admitted she found it "really beautiful" to be offered a role as a "sexual being" in her 50s and she thinks her character is very "relatable".
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “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.
“There are many women who are going, ‘Well, I’ve done this, I’ve got children, I’ve got this husband, and what do I actually want? Who am I and what are my desires? Do I have to pretend to be something else for people to love me?’
“I think it’s very releasing, this film. I hope it is."
