Nicole Kidman has revealed how intimacy co-ordinators helped to create her ‘most exposing’ film yet.
Having recently appeared in The Perfect Couple, the actor stars in Halina Reijn’s upcoming erotic drama. Set to land in cinemas in the new year, the film had its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival recently where it received a six-and-a-half minute standing ovation.
The movie also features Antonio Banderas and Harris Dickinson as it follows a high-powered CEO (Kidman) who risks her career and family ‘when she begins a torrid affair’ with the company’s new, and much younger, intern (Dickinson).
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The director’s already called it an ‘X-ray’ of kink as the Aussie star admitted she might struggle to watch it.
Having spoke to Vanity Fair about how the ‘vulnerable’ filming process often left her feeling ‘ragged’, Kidman added that she still felt ‘incredibly safe’.
Safety was emphasised in the making of the film - called Babygirl - with Reijn’s sex scenes captured in ‘radically long takes’. And it’s explained that intimacy co-ordinators worked with the stars to ‘precisely structure a given sequence’s many twists and turns’.
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The scenes were blocked out in rehearsals and then would be adjusted during production. And once the camera started rolling, the actors were totally dialled in.
“I never came out of it, really,” Kidman said.
At a press conference, the star also spoke about the importance of the set and its atmosphere while shooting a film like this.
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“I’m a huge believer still in the sacredness of the set or the actors’ space and it never being violated,” the Big Little Lies actor said.
“It’s ours, it’s the bubble, and then there’s the world outside.”
Dickinson also praised intimacy co-ordinator Lizzy Talbot, as he said: “She was important for the film and broke the unnecessary barrier and conversation around what you have to do.
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“Ultimately it’s choreography; when you get into the nitty-gritty of those kind of scenes, you have to be very precise with it and she’s very good at getting straight into it on a pragmatic basis.”
And Kidman echoed this with how much trust she had in Reijn.
“I knew Halina wasn’t going to exploit me. It’s the story I wanted to be part of, that I wanted to tell,” she said. “Every part of me was committed to that. There was enormous caretaking by all of us, we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other.”
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, Nicole Kidman
Jess Battison