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It’s not often the phrases ‘kinky erotic thriller’ and ‘Christmas movie’ go together, but apparently that might just be the case when it comes to Nicole Kidman’s new movie Babygirl.
In the film, made by Bodies Bodies Bodies filmmaker Halina Reijn, Kidman portrays plays a powerful CEO who risks her career and marriage with onscreen husband Antonio Banderas to have a passionate affair with a much younger intern who turns her life upside down.
But, as the film comes out in the USA on Christmas Day and there are certainly plenty of Christmas references within it… is it technically a Christmas movie?
Well, according to writer-director Halina Reijn, the movie’s Christmassy setting was a last minute pivot.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s premiere in Los Angeles this week she shared: “I wrote it as a summer movie, it was all going to take place in the Hamptons and it was going to be on the beach.
“Then the strike happened, of course it was pencils down and we had to wait, and then the schedule became Christmas. And I was like, ‘We should definitely make this into a Christmas movie,’ and after the strike, I just rewrote the whole thing to Christmas.
“And the whole sort of American idea of Christmas is so like [humming a Christmas carol Sleigh Ride] so I felt like that’s perfect, it’s all so performative in a way. It’s joyful but it’s also kind of performative, so I thought it was a great metaphor for Romy, the main character.”
Sounds like Babygirl is very much a Christmas movie in that case, but what does its cast think?
Fortunately, its lead star Nicole Kidman has also made her feelings known.
When asked by Variety at the same premiere whether Babygirl is a Christmas movie, Nicole offered a simple three word answer: “Let’s hope so.”
“Somebody thinks it is… A24 is very subversive. They seem to go against the grain always, so maybe [Christmas] is the right time,” she said.
Meanwhile her co-star Harris Dickinson, who plays a sexually dominating intern, agreed, adding: “It’s absolutely a Christmas movie. I didn’t know it was going to be, but it turned out to be so I’m going with it.”
Unfortunately for us here in the UK, Babygirl will be a New Year movie, with its release date currently set at 10 January – although we’re sure we’re going to enjoy it all the same.
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