Nicole Kidman Clarified That She “Didn’t Feel Exploited” While Filming Her Sexually Graphic New Movie

Nicole Kidman has shed more light on her experience filming her new movie Babygirl.

In the erotic thriller, which is directed by Halina Reijn, Nicole portrays high-powered CEO Romy, who has an affair with a younger male intern, played by Harris Dickinson.

Last week, Vanity Fair published an interview with Nicole, in which she admitted that she was left feeling “ragged” after filming the movie.

“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 shared.

“I felt very exposed as an actor, as a woman, as a human being,” she added. “I had to go in and go out like, I need to put my protection back on. What have I just done? Where did I go? What did I do?”

Days after the interview was published, Nicole opened up further about her experience shooting Babygirl during a press conference at Venice Film Festival.

Explaining that the film is “obviously about sex,” Nicole added that Babygirl is also about desire, secrets, marriage, power, and consent.

“This is one woman’s story, and this is, I hope, a very liberating story,” the actor said, per Variety. “It’s told by a woman, through her gaze — Halina wrote it, and she directed it — and that’s to me what made it so unique because suddenly, I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material.”

Nicole went on to praise the on-set environment that Halina created, noting that she found it “very freeing” filming the thriller.

“It was very dear to our shared instincts and very freeing. I knew [Halina] wasn’t going to exploit me. However anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it. There was enormous caretaking by all of us; we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and, at the same time, real,” she said.

Babygirl will be released in US theaters on December 25.