While crafting one of the year’s most provocative scenes, Babygirl writer and director Halina Reijn discovered that truth can be steamier than fiction. The memorable milk scene in which Harris Dickinson’s Samuel sends a glass of milk to Nicole Kidman’s Romy at a bar was inspired by a real-life experience Reijn herself had, proving the power of subtlety and suggestion in erotic storytelling.
“The milk is, of course, an archetype. We’ve seen it in other movies,” Reijn explained in an interview with IndieWire. “It is a great symbol of the animalistic sides of ourselves.”
Reijn shared the origins of this idea, recounting a night in Belgium when she was performing on stage. “I had a really good run and felt great about myself for one night in my life,” she said. After her colleagues opted for an early night, she went alone to a bar and ordered a Diet Coke. That’s when a younger, famous Belgian actor made his move.
“He ordered me a glass of milk. I thought it was an incredible, hot thing to do, and so courageous,” Reijn recalled. “I wanted to reward him by drinking the whole thing, and I did. It did make me a little nauseated, to be honest, because it was cow milk. It was back in the day.” Despite the slightly queasy aftermath, the act left a lasting impression. “I wish he had said ‘good girl’ to me,” she quipped, “but he just walked out. I didn’t have sex with him or anything.”
This seemingly innocuous yet undeniably charged interaction became a cornerstone for the film’s exploration of power dynamics and sexuality. “When I was writing, I did think that was one of the most arousing moments of my life. There wasn’t even touching,” Reijn explained. “That is what fascinates me about sex. To me, real, shocking sex is often not at all two bodies banging into each other. It’s about what’s in the mind. It’s all suggestion. It’s all imagination.”
The film pushes these boundaries through scenes of intense psychological intimacy. One such moment involves Romy crawling on a stained carpet to lick candy from Samuel’s hand, while he pets her as if she were an animal. “That, to me, is really sexy,” Reijn noted. “Real sex acts onscreen are quite boring, which is why we only have two short moments of that.”
Babygirl, an A24 erotic workplace thriller, stars Nicole Kidman as Romy, a high-powered CEO risking it all in a fiery affair with her much younger intern, Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson. Reijn’s daring approach underscores the complexity of desire, highlighting the psychological elements that make sex compelling—both in life and on screen.
