Nicole Kidman Says Exploring Kink in S&M Thriller Babygirl Required ‘An Enormous Amount of Trust’

Nicole Kidman is opening up about making her new erotic thriller.

The Academy Award winner, 57, spoke of her work in the buzzed-about Babygirl during a Q&A at the London West Hollywood in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 18, where she was joined by costar Harris Dickinson, 28, and writer-director Halina Reijn after a screening of their film.

When asked about exploring kink in Babygirl, Kidman said “an enormous amount of trust” was key in creating the dynamism and complexity that exists between her and Dickinson’s characters. “We would look at each other and go, ‘okay,’ ” she said.

“Of course there were days where I would go in really terrified of a scene or I don’t know how I’m going to do this,” added Dickinson, who previously starred in The Iron Claw. But “there was never a day that if the scene wasn’t working or if we weren’t comfortable or we weren’t getting something, we never felt that time was more important. It was just like, ‘Okay, everyone go away for a second.’ ”

Kidman said that having Reijn at the helm helped her feel comfortable making Babygirl, in which she portrays a powerful business executive who starts an affair with an intern (Dickinson) at her company as her husband (Antonio Banderas) remains in the dark.

“I’ve always been on a quest as an actor, I’m always going, where have I not been? And what can I explore as a human being? And this was an area I’d never been,” she said.

“There’s a sort of a jump off the cliff thing where you go, okay, I’m just going to abandon everything and explore this with the people that I trust in a genre that is already set, but hopefully we can explore new territory and especially with the female at the helm.”

Babygirl, which explores sexuality and desire through a flipped narrative of a woman in a position of power felt “liberating” at times, Kidman added.

And, she said, “You have your director at the helm going, ‘I will protect you. Nothing that’s going to be in the film will be anything that you are not comfortable with. You are going to be okay.’ “

Still, the experience took a toll. Speaking about the film with Vanity Fair ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in August, Kidman explained how the role “left [her] ragged.”

“At some point I was like, I don’t want to be touched. I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time I was compelled to do it,” she said. “Halina would hold me and I would hold her, because it was just very confronting to me.”

“It’s like, ‘Golly, I’m doing this, and it’s actually now going to be seen by the world.’ That’s a very weird feeling,” the Big Little Lies star said. “This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”

During a Venice press conference that month, Kidman said she never felt exploited while making Babygirl‘s intimate sequences.

“That’s what made it so compelling, was being in the hands of Halina, because I knew she wasn’t gonna exploit me,” she told reporters. “I mean, however anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it. It’s the story that I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to tell. And every part of me was committed to that.”

Kidman added of the cast and crew, “There was enormous care taken by all of us. We were all very, very gentle with each other and helped each other.”

Babygirl arrives in theaters Dec. 25.