Actress Nicole Kidman experienced 'burnout' shooting sex scenes for Babygirl

At an age when many start to slow down, 57-year-old Australian actress Nicole Kidman is enjoying one of her busiest years yet with three films and three television series in 2024 — and the raunchiest sex scenes of her career.

- Alison de Souza

She was a grief-stricken mother in the drama Expats; had an affair with a hot young movie star in the romantic-comedy movie A Family Affair; was a murder suspect in the mystery series The Perfect Couple; and played a spy chief on Season 2 of the thriller Lioness.

More recently, she voiced a queen in the animated fantasy flick Spellbound, and now she headlines the new erotic thriller Babygirl, playing a high-powered executive who risks it all for a torrid fling with a young male intern.

Opening in Singapore cinemas on Jan 2, the latter earned Kidman a seven-minute standing ovation and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice International Film Festival in September, sparking talk of an Oscar nod.

At a screening of Babygirl in New York in October, Kidman says she was fascinated by the story, which was inspired by 1990s erotic thrillers such as Basic Instinct (1992), and entails explicit sex scenes with her 28-year-old English co-star Harris Dickinson (Triangle Of Sadness, 2022).

“I read the script and I thought it was so funny, but I also was turned on by it and hypnotised. I just loved that I never knew what was going to happen next, and nothing is as it seems as it unravels.