Nicole Kidman Talks 17th Golden Globe Acting Nod For Her Subversive ‘Babygirl’ Role
Nicole Kidman was going about her morning routine, focusing on getting her daughter off to school on Monday, when another, surprisingly, routine moment happened — she learned, for the 17th time, that she’d been nominated for a Golden Globe for acting.
This year, the nod is for her performance in Babygirl, the A24 sexual thriller that has Kidman as a high-powered CEO who risks her career and family when she begins an affair with a much younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson. Her vulnerable performance has already been awarded at this year’s Venice Film Festival and by the National Board of Review.
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“To be still relevant in this world and this industry, working on the films that I love, feels wonderful,” Kidman told The Hollywood Reporter just after the Globes nomination was announced. “And to be in such an unusual film that still hasn’t been released [Babygirl is set to hit theaters on Dec. 25], we needed these things, and we’re grateful for it.”
Babygirl fits in with the psycho-sexual genre of films like 9 ? Weeks and The Piano Teacher but inverts the premise with Kidman’s character holding the power — at least in public and at first.
“I grew up on all of those Adrian Lyne films and [Paul] Verhoeven films,” Kidman said. “They were huge films when we were growing up. And so to have [writer-director Halina Reijn] then write something in that genre — but subvert it and also make it very, very female — it was exciting.”
It’s a dream role for an actor in Kidman’s position. At 57, she’s still in high demand and can be seen nearly everywhere this year — streaming her performance in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, in the spy thriller series Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount+ and in the Prime Video series, Expats. It’s Babygirl, however, that allows Kidman to drill down into a rarely convened character whose complexity is vital and takes a central role in the narrative.
“I’m in every frame of the movie,” Kidman said. “So if Romy doesn’t work, the film doesn’t work, but the complexity and the layers and the humanness of the film as well is what I found exciting. Because it’s deeply human.”
The 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards is set to air live from the Beverly Hilton on CBS and stream on Paramount+ on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.
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