CLet’s omate from the beginning: It was 1993 and Nicole Kidman called her Mrs. Cruise. He had been married for three years with Tom, the most famous star in the world, the golden boy of American cinema, and Jane Campion had just offered her the character of the American heirman Isabel Archer in Portrait of lady (from the Henry James novel). I remember it well, in our first interviews: the mass of golden curls, the princess of Perrault princess, composed, bon ton, vaguely detached, was already able to manage the crowd of journalists who bombed it with questions.
Everything would then change in a hurry. Nicole Kidman became one of the most requested, versatile and courageous actresses of cinema in a whale, preferred by directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Baz Luhrmann, Stephen Daldry (directed it in The Hoursand with the role of Virginia Woolf she He won the Oscar for best actress), and then Lars von Trier, Werner Herzog, Anthony Minghella, Noah Baumbach, Nora Ephron. I could break for a long time: The Australian star has in the curriculum the beauty of about seventy films and numerous television series (who interpreted and produced).
Tireless, punctual and rigorous in the work, inflexible with herself, always looking for new and demanding roles, it is also vulnerable, discovered, emotional when you talk to her: I remember her in a long interview in London for a special TV in which speaking of the mother , and only with tears in the eyes, could he communicate many of his emotions, as if we were in the scene of a film. In recent years, as a producer or interpreter, he has definitely a favorite women registers: Sofia Coppola (The Boguled – The deception), Susanne Bier (the HBO miniseries The Undoing – The truths not said), Lulu Wang (the Amazon series Expats), to finish his latest work, the erotic-psychological thriller Babygirldirected by the Dutch Halina Reijn. Here, at 57, he offers his most courageous performance: a summary of female sexual fantasies and a register in which you go from sensual to threatening, sad or fun tones.
Nicole Kidman sensual in Babygirl
We are in New York, she (Romy) is a successful manager, serenely married to a theatrical director (Antonio Banderas), Routine sex, apparent family harmony. Within the frame of economic and emotional well -being, Romy instead reveals a detention but profound dissatisfaction that explodes with the arrival of an intern with little more than twenty -year -olds (Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson, the model of Triangle of Sadness). The man, to conquer it, triggers an irresistible game of submission and domain. Rejin, the director, when I asked her about her film at the end of the screening, replied: «While I was writing the script, I did not think of others than in Nicole. Yes, in the film he explores every aspect and dynamic of sexual intercourse without covering them, however, of beautiful retouched images. Above all, I try to show the human side of these relationships without guilt, nor moral judgments ».
I talked about it with Nicole, during a break on the set of Shoethe new television series From the novel by Patricia Cornwell (the actress is the protagonist, in the role of a coroner who resolves dark crimes, editor’s note). Today Nicole is a happy and satisfied woman from work and family, her husband and two daughters. Perhaps, it appears different from the girl of the 90s, but remained adventurous, curious and kind. Certainly more open and helpful than the past.
Nicole, interviews her, and I have met her for each film, for more than thirty years, it doesn’t find that it is nice?
Crazy … Incredible, thirty years. (He says it in Italian and laughs).
A lot has been said of Babygirlerotic scenes and the courage you have shown. Was it an important experience to explore a female character like Romy?
When I read the script sent by Halina (the director, editor’s note) I was struck by it because it was a deep and at the same time funny story. Here nobody judges you, there is no moral judgment, which is unusual, on the contrary, it makes this film unique. There has never been a film of this kind focused on the female voice: you do not follow the story of a man, but only the perspective of a woman, her sexual odyssey and, therefore, her existential crisis. Babygirl Start with Romy and ends with Romy. And she, the protagonist, does not end punished or very bad in the tragedy, as per tradition.
Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in Babygirl
Is it a sexual fantasy?
There are those who play the story of the film as a complete imagination, a projection of the female mind, and those who see it as a real narrative. The story is proposed, if we want, in a comedy tone, but also addresses the question of strength relationships, the node of consent, and the authentic I of a woman of a “certain age”.
Is it liberating to interpret a woman like Romy, or did you intimor her the idea of transforming herself into such a character?
And how. I have always wanted to make films that conceptually force our limits, and cause discussions. I can’t deny that there were discussions around the film. Each minute described a reassuring and alarming process at the same time. I also believe that Halina wanted to create a fairy tale, or a parable, and we all pulled a breath of relief when in Venice the public reacted to laugh. Halina is Dutch and has an all -European vision of this kind of film. The bones with the Ibsen theater (with works like Hedda Gabler and doll house) and Shakespeare was made. And similar issues, albeit revised and rewritten, had present them in the writing of Babygirl.
She often chooses conflicting characters, tormented women. For example, I think of the Diane Arbus of Furto Virginia Woolf of The Hours. In Babygirl The dynamics of female sexual desire are examined, perhaps an intimate and not exactly popular topic.
It was an intimate experience also exciting because I was lucky enough to be in the hands of a director who protected me and took care of me. I could free myself with her, knowing that she would never exploit me. Every role has always offered me the opportunity to recognize something about me; In this film I am in every single frame, I follow every moment of Romy’s journey. It does not happen frequently. The film raises the legal aspect, thorny, of the question: consent. It was Samuel who chased her and seduce her, but it is also true that the boy works for her, Romy is his boss. It is a gray area to move. And it was Samuel who explained to me what consent was: we both continue our game, we discover ourselves in a significant adventure. Unlike Halina who wrote and directed the film, I have a vision, however, subjective, protagonist of the story: it was difficult to separate myself from Romy and intellectualizing it.
What do you mean?
My reaction was all visceral. Instead, it is surprising to see how young people react to this film in a completely different way; They have a different vision and understanding of sexuality, just as their world vision is different. He is a subject dear to the director, who had already faced him beautifully in his film Body Body Body.
A few years ago he had declared that he wanted to work more often with women’s directors, and kept his promise.
But this is not an ideological choice, I go where my heart brings me, I do not politicize my decisions. I follow my instinct, I recite if I feel in tune with the stories to tell, if I am interested in personal level.
In recent years, she has chosen women, directors and authors in recent years.
I feel in tune with the stories of women, of course. I am a woman, and I can speak as a mother, daughter, wife, producer, actress; In short, I can move in different spaces and use a well of emotions and experiences to express my voice. I choose roles and people with whom to collaborate very carefully. This is why I wanted to work with Susanne Bier or Lulu Wang, I find their points of view remarkable. I just shot a movie, Welcome to Hollandwith a young director, Mimi Cave, who has his own unique voice, and now in the series Shoe I work again with a magnificent Franco-Swedish woman, Charlotte Brändström. These are not necessarily male or female choices: I have always been attracted to people with different and complex perspectives, by worlds, countries and cultures of all kinds. More than any other factor, I think I don’t have to be in the center. In short: I want to stay brave, don’t close myself but participate. I’ll try. (Laughs). I never go back, I challenge the adventure. Ahead all.
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