“Babygirl” filmmaker Halina Reijn has much to say about the movie’s age gap.
The movie stars Nicole Kidman, 57, a Golden Globe nominee for “Babygirl,” and Harris Dickinson, 28. It explores the sexual and romantic dynamics between powerful, married tech CEO Romy (Kidman), and her young intern Samuel (Dickinson), with whom she starts an affair. While the characters’ ages are never explicitly revealed, the visible age gap – in which Samuel is closer in age to her children than to herself – and the ever-shifting power dynamic between Romy and Samuel are critical to the story.
In an interview with W Magazine, journalist Claire Valentine pointed out to Reijn, 49, that this isn’t the first film this year with a significant age gap between a female lead and a male co-star. Films like “The Perfect Find” “Lonely Planet” and “The Idea of You” were among the others. Even Kidman has starred in another age-gap romance with Zac Efron this year called “A Family Affair.”
The “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and “Instinct” director responded, “If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane.”
Rejin continued, “It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships.
“We’re not trapped in a box anymore,” Reijn added. “We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It’s really hard.”
Elsewhere, Reijin explained she wanted the sexual relationship between Romy and Samuel, to “feel incredibly hot and steamy and fun, but I also wanted them to be real.
“Sexuality is stop-and-go. It’s never like a glamour scene from a Hollywood movie in the ’90s. That’s just not how it works,” she explained.
“Babygirl” is now available in theaters nationwide
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