Stanley Kubrick's divisive drama that made $162 million at the box office. During the 1990s, the Australian actress starred alongside Tom Cruise several times, starting with 1990's Days of Thunder, which was her international breakout. Kidman and Cruise reunited for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away in 1992 and once again in 1999 as a couple on a sexual odyssey in Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut.

Kidman has been one of the highest-paid actresses since the late 1990s and remains incredibly busy to this day. In 2024 alone, she has starred in the Prime Video series Expats, the Netflix films A Family Affair and Spellbound, the Netflix series The Perfect Couple, and the Paramount+ series Lioness. However, Kidman has yet another movie, A24's erotic thriller Babygirl, still left to be released in 2024.

Babygirl Takes Inspiration From An Unanswered Fantasy In Eyes Wide Shut

Nicole Kidman Stars In The New Erotic Thriller & Stanley Kubrick's Divisive Drama

Babygirl, Nicole Kidman's new erotic thriller, takes inspiration from an unanswered fantasy in Stanley Kubrick's divisive drama, Eyes Wide Shut. Written and directed by Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies), A24's erotic thriller follows Kidman as a powerful CEO in New York City who embarks on a forbidden affair with an alluring, but significantly younger intern. Kidman leads Babygirl's cast alongside Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, and Sophie Wilde.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer-director Halina Reijn explained how Babygirl explores themes of marriage and monogamy from a female perspective, imagining what would have happened if Kidman's character in Eyes Wide Shut, Alice Harford, had acted on her fantasy. Reijn seeks to offer a counterpoint to the male-focused narrative of Kubrick's film by focusing on the female perspective. Read Reijn's full comments below:

It's about marriage; it's about monogamy. What is monogamy and can you possess someone else or do you have to set them free? We follow Tom Cruise everywhere. We don't even know what [Alice is] going through. We're totally in his mind, heart, and soul. I want to know, "What if she would've gone and actually would've lived her fantasy?" That's what this is — my answer, playfully and humbly, to the male Eyes Wide Shut.... All of us women are ready and hungry to see and hear stories about how we feel and from our perspective.

What Halina Reijn's Comments Mean For Babygirl

How It Takes Inspiration From Eyes Wide Shut

In Eyes Wide Shut, the inciting incident occurs when Alice confesses to her husband, Bill (played by Tom Cruise), that she once had a sexual fantasy where she considered abandoning her life to be with a naval officer she met while on vacation. Her confession sends Bill into a downward spiral, leading him into a dangerous world of sex cults and murder. However, while Eyes Wide Shut focuses more on the male perspective, Babygirl aims to focus on the female perspective by imagining what the story might have looked like if Alice had actually pursued her fantasy.

Babygirl releases in theaters on December 25.

Source: EW