If you happen to assume Nicole Kidman is enjoying the title position in “Babygirl,” the Oscar-winning actress needs a phrase with you.

It’s just some days earlier than Christmas and I’m speaking to Kidman over Zoom for the primary “Only for Selection” episode of 2025.

Written and directed by Halina Reijn, the erotic thriller stars Kidman as a tech CEO who has a really kinky sub-dom affair with an intern, performed by Harris Dickinson.

I ask Kidman if she or Dickinson is the babygirl.

“Each, proper?” she says. “As Halina says within the ‘father determine’ scene, we’re not fairly positive who’s the daddy. One minute I’m the daddy, subsequent minute he’s the daddy, which is what I really like about the way in which by which she depicts the generations, the way in which by which energy doesn’t matter what age you might be, the way it shifts. I feel the whole lot’s subverted on this movie.”

The next Q&A has been edited for size and readability. You may take heed to the complete dialog on “Only for Selection.”

Inform me about your strategy of first studying the script. Do you will have a ritual that you simply do if you learn a script? Do you go off right into a nook someplace? Or is it somebody sends it to you and also you begin studying?

Nicely, if it’s a superb script, I imply, I sit down and I begin studying. After which if it holds me, I simply learn and I don’t cease. After which I make notes, instantly.

Instantly?

Kubrick taught me that. He mentioned, “As a result of there’s no different factor than the primary learn. After that, it’s all going to be a barely totally different response response, but it surely gained’t be fast and intuitive.” And all of the concepts that seem or the dearth of issues in there. So he used to ship you the script in an envelope and say, “I’m going to choose it up in two hours,” after which he would take it again, to just remember to sat and browse it.

Did you ship it again to Kubrick with notes?

I didn’t make any notes with him. I used to be identical to, “I’m in, no matter. I don’t even must learn it.” However with Halina and with each script since subsequently, I’ll make notes instantly. If I can’t end it, then I do know it’s not for me. And that isn’t as a result of it’s good or dangerous, it simply means I’m not in it. However with one thing like “Babygirl,” I learn starting to finish after which I simply referred to as her and mentioned, “Okay, how can we get it made? What can we do? Inform me now what to do.” We additionally simply talked quite a bit about what it made me really feel, what I responded to, concepts and I had questions for her. It was totally different to what the movie is now, as a result of it was the primary draft, or it was I feel, one in all her first drafts the place it was nonetheless within the shaping type. There have been issues in it that you simply and I can speak about one other time, that aren’t in there now. However it was stunning to be on that floor stage, getting into the challenge that means. As a result of the opposite instances you enter and it’s a remaining draft and there’s nothing to be shifted or moved. So this was very a lot, it was nonetheless in movement. However the concepts had been so strong and the construction was strong.

How a lot is your choice if you’re studying the script going, “I type of concern this, which means I must do it?”

No, that’s too cerebral for me. It’s too mental. I used to be turned on by it. I used to be thrilled. I used to be excited by the precise scenes and issues, after which I used to be scared. I had virtually like an viewers response to it. And I simply beloved Romy. I imply, I beloved Samuel too. I beloved Jacob. It was all the time taking me without warning, as a result of the whole lot I assumed that it was going to be, it wasn’t. And I simply was actually captured by it. I used to be Romy once I was studying it. It’s visceral. The film is visceral, and in order that was my response to it. Then it was like, “Nicely, how can we do that?” There have been issues the place I used to be like, “Gosh, I don’t perceive this,” as a result of Romy didn’t perceive what she was doing. So there have been these unusual pictures, which I used to be like, “What does that imply?” However that’s as a result of it’s a dreamscape combined with a style movie.

There are some hypotheses, some ideas on the market that that is all Romy’s dream, a fantasy.

I didn’t assume that once I learn it. I really like totally different responses… And I may be satisfied of that now, watching it, I can go, “Ah, fascinating.” However that’s not how I initially skilled it.

When folks began to inform me why they thought that, I used to be like, “Okay, how did he get this internship? He’s a bit of too schlubby for this place. Possibly he’s a bit of too previous?”

When it was unfolding, I used to be like, “Did he truly plant himself in there, as a result of he’d seen her and met her earlier sooner or later and turn out to be obsessed?” Who is aware of? That’s all the time the push-pull in it. And Halina has robust solutions to it, however I’m all the time reluctant to reply these issues as a result of audiences ought to all the time be capable of verify what they need from it. It’s like if you go and see a portray and also you go, “Nicely, now it seems totally different,” or, “Now I’m responding in a different way to it,” or, “What I used to be offended by, I’m now drawn to.”

That’s what makes artwork fascinating, that you simply’re having a dialogue afterward. Two human beings have watched the identical film on the similar time, and your brains are stepping into utterly totally different instructions. That’s resonating. I think about that’s the last word objective for an artist.

Superb, sure. And I’ve been in movies which have carried out that. That is an excessive model of it, in all probability essentially the most excessive for me.

I do know you’ve mentioned “Eyes Large Shut” is extra of the male lens with a male protagonist.

Nicely, marriage, it was a few marriage. However clearly, I used to be in a distinct sphere. I used to be a part of his story. And now 20 years later, this can be a factor, however they’re very totally different movies. I’ve circled grief and loss and intercourse and fantasy and need and craving. Issues which are fascinating. I imply, I really like dealing in several realms too, like in “Rabbit Gap,” the place it’s about parallel universes virtually, and desirous to exist in a parallel universe, as a result of this universe is painful. These issues resonate deeply. However I really like, as I say, filmmakers who’ve philosophical factors of view.

The opposite evening, me and a bunch of my homosexual boy mates had been having a Nicole Kidman love fest.

I really like that. Inform me extra. Why wasn’t I invited?

My good friend Glenn turns and goes, “You understand what? I really like what she mentioned not too long ago about why she’s appearing a lot and the way it empowers feminine filmmakers. And she or he may get tales made.” I mentioned, “Nicely, to begin with, that was my interview I did together with her, so thanks.”

That was to you. That went in all places. Thanks. It was simply us speaking on the pink carpet.

It was such a gorgeous reply. And I don’t know if folks didn’t count on that may be the reply. However when you mentioned it, it is sensible.

I get to place my weight and my energy and my voice behind folks which are both having second probabilities, third probabilities, starting or needing steerage. That’s a objective for me, so I’m joyful to be doing it.

Are you aware the primary time I noticed you, Nicole?

The place?

The Vainness Honest Oscar Occasion if you had been sporting the Galliano gown.

That’s when Madonna and Courtney Love mentioned to me, “Finest dressed,” and I used to be like, “What? Oh my God.” Each of them. They made my 12 months.

I didn’t know what the Vainness Honest Occasion was. I used to be an assistant at Premiere and I began a celebration web page. I walked in and I mentioned, “Everybody’s well-known in right here. That is wild.”

Premiere was a extremely good journal, wasn’t it?

That was my first job in leisure journalism.

Wow. I used to be simply actually beginning out. I’d carried out issues in Australia after which I came to visit right here and I did “Days of Thunder.” That’s loopy. However it’s pretty too, as a result of I really like that you simply’re nonetheless right here and we’ve grown up collectively, we’ve watched issues change and shift, however we’re nonetheless extremely enthusiastic about what’s to return and what’s occurring now. It’s so good to be a significant a part of it nonetheless, proper?

However the one factor, you will have by no means gained a SAG award for movie work.

No.

I’m shocked, I’ll be sincere with you.

I’ve been nominated not often too.

What would it not imply to you to be acknowledged by your friends?

You get sure issues that sit deeply inside you when different actors see what you’ve carried out on display and respect it or perceive it — notably with this movie. I’ve had totally different actors discuss to me about it and it’s like they get it. They know what it takes to do notably this sort of sexuality on display. When an actor goes, “I do know what that took,” that’s if you go, “Oh, thanks.” And a few actors who’re actually shut mates of mine, whose opinions I so worth they usually’re powerful, have talked to me in depth about it. And it’s like if you mentioned you’re keen on the movie, you’re like, virtually, “Can I hug you?” As a result of it’s like being understood and seen, and that’s a really highly effective factor when it occurs.

It’s emotional.

It’s.

And there’s nothing higher as a viewer to get emotional if you’re watching a film.

Or have a robust response that ignites in your relationship or some kind of dialogue in your life. I learn not too long ago a chunk, I feel it was within the New York Occasions, the place he was saying, “I’ve type of misplaced my religion in artwork. I’m unsure that it will probably change lives.” And I used to be like, “Oh gosh. Wow, I’m wondering if that’s true?” After which I assumed, “However maintain on, I’ve undoubtedly had issues the place I’ve watched issues which have modified my life — modified them and even emotionally unlocking one thing or opening a door inside me that I didn’t fairly understand was shut. Or permitting some secret feeling to return alive, as a result of it’s not utterly loopy or bizarre or disturbing.

It’s the very best type of artwork, and you retain giving it to us, Nicole.

It’s not me. It’s not me.

Nope, it’s worthwhile to take that in.

I can’t.

I do know you’ll be able to’t.

I cling my head. I can’t as a result of it’s shared. It’s past. There’s nothing with out the one that wrote it, directed it, or acted reverse you. It’s not in existence. And it’s not in existence with out the crew, after which the cinematographer who hustles, since you’re mendacity on the ground crying they usually know they’ve received to maneuver to seize it now. And so they do. It’s like that’s an power, that’s tacit agreements between inventive folks going, “Let’s go for it. Let’s go after it. Let’s chase it and let’s attempt to discover it.”