Age Gaps Should Be Normalized in Both Directions’ as ‘Babygirl’ Director Defends Nicole Kidman-Starrer Romance

Filmmaker Halina Reijn is celebrating her innovative approach to onscreen romance in her new romantic thriller Babygirl, addressing the shifting dynamics of love and intimacy in film. In a recent interview with W Magazine, the 49-year-old director shared her thoughts on a growing trend in romantic films, particularly regarding age gaps in relationships.

Reijn expressed her frustration with the current perception of age differences in films, saying, “If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane.” She went on to argue, “It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships.”

The director emphasized her desire to break free from traditional, patriarchal expectations in romantic films. “We’re not trapped in a box anymore,” Reijn said. “We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It’s really hard.” This marks a departure from the conventional portrayal of romance, aiming for more realistic and diverse depictions of love and attraction.

Reijn also discussed how Babygirl’s sensual scenes were inspired by the erotic films of the 1990s. She wanted these intimate moments to feel authentic, not overly glamorized. “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,” she explained. She reflected on America’s more suppressed relationship with sex, noting, “I found so much fun in the fact that America to me has a kind of suppressed relationship towards sex, and I do too…So America serves as a metaphor of my own struggles with this theme.”

The film also garnered praise from Nicole Kidman, who plays Romy, a married tech company CEO caught in a risky affair with an intern, Samuel (played by Harris Dickinson). Kidman shared her thoughts on the film’s impact, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “A lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being.

It was really beautiful to be seen in this way in Babygirl.” She added, “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.”