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Nicole Kidman‘s Romy has been a “good girl” — so says Harris Dickinson‘s character Samuel in the official trailer for Babygirl, the buzzy Halina Reijn erotic thriller about a high-powered executive who engages in an illicit romance with her intern.
The tantalizing trailer teases the cat-and-mouse relationship between Romy and Samuel, whose immediate, knee-buckling chemistry kickstarts an affair that would certainly raise an HR violation or two. Spliced with shots of the two in hotel rooms, bars and clubs, the duo play with the inherent power and gender dynamics within their personal and professional lives.
Hailing from writer-director Reijn (Bodies, Bodies, Bodies), Babygirl premiered to strong reviews in Venice earlier in the summer, nabbing a seven-minute standing ovation from viewers. The A24 film follows Kidman’s CEO as she puts her life’s work (and relationship with on-screen husband, played by Antonio Banderas) on the line when she begins the torrid affair.
“Everyone is just waiting for me to buckle under the pressure,” Romy narrates in the two-minute-long preview, as audiences get a glimpse of her life as a “collaborator” and “nurturer” having to balance the double-work required of her paying job and role as a mother and wife.
In one eye-popping scene, Samuel impulsively blurts out his observations of Romy: “I think you like to be told what to do,” before demurring and adding with a shy laugh, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to … that was incredibly inappropriate.”
As the two play out the ground rules for their taboo romance — in which Samuel commands Romy — Kidman’s character careens out of control (and under the purview of her employee), doing as she’s told as she drinks a glass of milk and brushing up against reality when he shows up at her home.
“You’re very young,” Romy says, “I don’t want to hurt you,” to which Samuel responds: “Hurt me? I think I have power over you. Because I could make one call and you would lose everything. Does that turn you on when I say that?”
Speaking to press at Venice, Kidman called her experience making the film “very freeing,” saying, “The film is obviously, yes, about sex, it’s about desire, it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent … This is one woman’s story, and I hope a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze … and that’s to me what made it so unique was that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material and it was very deep to share those things and very freeing.”
Babygirl premieres in theaters on Christmas Day.
Watch the trailer above.
