Nicole Kidman's 'Babygirl' director defends 29-year age gap between actress and co-star in erotic thriller

During an interview for the erotic thriller, the director defended the age gap between her two lead actors, Kidman, 57, and Harris Dickinson, 28. 

"We're not trapped in a box anymore. We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It's really hard."

The Dutch director, who also worked on 2022's "Bodies Bodies Bodies," continued to describe that she wanted the sex scenes to "feel incredibly hot and steamy and fun, but I also wanted them to be real."

"Sexuality is stop-and-go. It's never like a glamour scene from a Hollywood movie in the '90s. That's just not how it works," Reijn said.

"From the minute I read it, I was like, 'Yeah, this is a voice I haven't seen, this is a place that I haven't been, I don't think audiences have been.' My character has reached a stage where she's got all this power, but she's not sure who she is, what she wants, what she desires, even though she seems to have it all. And I think that's really relatable."

This wasn't the first time Kidman worked on a movie where an older woman was interested in a younger man. This year, the actress additionally starred in Netflix's "A Family Affair," with Zac Efron, 37, as her love interest. 

Fox News Digital's Christina Dugan Ramirez contributed to this report.