'Babygirl' Director Says Nicole Kidman Milk Scene Happened to Her in Real Life

There's a scene in Halina Reijn's erotic thriller, Babygirl, where Nicole Kidman drinks an entire glass of milk in a bar while staring directly at Harris Dickinson — much to the bewilderment of those around her at the company holiday party. It's a wildly erotic and thrilling moment... and it also happened to Reijn in real life.

In a new interview with W Magazine, the director revealed that the scene was actually pulled from her own life and an encounter she had with a famous Belgian actor who was "way, way younger" than her.

The Bodies Bodies Bodies director — who was also a successful stage actress in her home country of the Netherlands prior to making the jump to the director's chair — explained the situation as something that happened in her 30s after a show. While out drinking with her colleagues at a bar, the aforementioned actor sent over a large glass of milk.

So what did she do? "I drank it, and he just walked out," she explained to W. "I thought, 'How does this guy get the courage?' I did think it was a very sensual thing to do. And I thought it was very funny."

It's a moment that, even without any sex involved at all, is rife with erotic and sensual undertones, making it all the more alluring even in its awkwardness. Because that's what sex is, really: it's not like how they portray it in film and television (for the most part), which is why Reijn set out to do what she did in this evocative and powerful film. It's also why she's called her film a counter-narrative to other big-name productions in the genre, like Eyes Wide Shut.

"I wanted those scenes to feel incredibly hot and steamy and fun, but I also wanted them to be real," she explained. "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."

"Sex isn’t about two bodies banging up against each other," she added later on. And I think most people would tend to agree, which is what makes this film — which truly doesn't have that much actual sex in it — so damned sexy.