There was a line Harris Dickinson was reluctant to cross with Nicole Kidman while filming erotic thriller “Babygirl.”
Sitting Wednesday on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” the actor teased that the on-screen relationship between his character and the Oscar winner — one of a lowly intern seeking sexual dominance and a high-powered CEO seeking subordination, respectively — somewhat mirrored how he felt as a relative newcomer working with a seasoned veteran.
“For an intern to do that as well to the boss — that was hard to do, as well,” Dickinson said of some of the dynamic situations the pair’s relationship found itself in. “Like for me to have to come in and do that to Nicole Kidman and I was like, well how do I do this?”
He was also afraid to offend the actress with some of the lines writer-director Halina Reijn had him saying.
“There’s a line in it where I say, like, I’m in the car with her and I say, ‘I’m not interested in that, you look like a mother.’ And I said to Halina, our director, I was like, ‘I can’t say that.’ That’s really, that’s a little bit rude, isn’t it?”
While Dickinson felt like the new kid on the block while filming, his character Samuel feels like the one in charge for most of the movie. Samuel starts out as an intern but quickly starts a domineering sexually charged relationship with Kidman’s character Romy. The actor discussed the complicated shifting power dynamics between the characters saying, “From the moment the game is set between them … he’s testing her.”
“He comes into her very stiff, high-powered CEO — everyone’s revering her, and he kind of sees that and watches it, and he’s like, I’m not going to do that,” Dickinson explained. “I’m going to do the opposite. I’m going to offer a cookie, I’m going to almost disrespect her a little bit, in a way.”
The result, as Barrymore said, “is very sexy” but also leads into interesting conversations not just about sex but about the “sort of toxicity” that comes with dominant and submissive relationships.
Watch a segment from Dickinson’s “Drew Barrymore Show” interview in the video above. “Babygirl” is in theaters now.
