During awards season, Champagne flows freely—as five-time Oscar nominee Nicole Kidman knows all too well. From the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice Awards to the Grammys to the Oscars, the best actors of the year are often toasted with a glass of bubbly.
Kidman, however, is celebrating her nominations with a different beverage: milk. At the gala for the National Board of Review, a New York organization made up of seasoned cinephiles who award their own distinctions, the actor paid tribute to her Babygirl character with an ice cold glass.
Like Demi Moore for The Substance and Mikey Madison for Anora, Nicole Kidman is one of this season’s favorites thanks to her stunning portrayal of Romy in Babygirl. She plays a CEO charmed by Samuel (Harris Dickinson), an intern who turns her daily life upside down by encouraging her to indulge her BDSM fantasies. Already crowned best actress at the Venice Film Festival and the Palm Springs Festival, she has received unanimous acclaim for her ultra-audacious, unsettling performance in a film that aptly questions the notion of power, female sexuality, and the perception of age. So, to receive her new award at the National Board of Review gala, she paid tribute to a key scene from Babygirl—without spoiling anything, since it’s available in the trailer.
Read moreThe Second Babygirl Trailer Has Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson Getting Extremely Sweaty
“Good girl.”
By Charley Ross
In the scene we see Romy drinking a large glass of milk in one go, in a bar. At first surprised to be brought milk by the waiter, she understands that the delivery is a power move by Samuel, who stares at her from a few yards away. Her gaze fixed on his, she looks defiant and finishes her glass without flinching, wiping the corner of her mouth when she finishes. In the film, this scene is a tipping point for their relationship, which is as torrid as it is tortuous.
Even before the release of Babygirl, this sequence caused a stir among moviegoers, who speculated about its context and had a field day reinterpreting it in videos, memes, and subtly erotic puns shared on social networks. Faced with the phenomenon, Nicole Kidman punctuated her acceptance speech with a toast to “all the babygirls in the room” and by drinking a large glass of milk in the space of a few seconds. The actor concluded with a mischievous “Good girl,” another of the film’s iconic lines.
For the occasion, Kidman wore a long black velvet halter dress, from the Jean Paul Gaultier archives, edged with stones and pearls. After her glamorous XXL-volume hairstyle at the Golden Globes over the weekend, she opted for a sideswept ponytail with a few loose strands to frame her face. A special mention must go to her unique earring, perfectly matched to the embellishments.
Babygirl director Halina Reijn explained to several media outlets that the scene was inspired by one of her past experiences. “I was in a bar and ordered something boring, like a Diet Coke, because I didn’t drink at the time because I was a control freak. There was also a young Belgian actor—I can’t say who he was—but he was famous. I knew who he was. I’d never spoken to him. He was at least 15 years younger than me and ordered me a glass of milk,” she told Indie Wire. I thought that was amazing, exciting and so brave, so I wanted to congratulate him by drinking all the milk, and I did. It kind of sickened me, to be honest with you, because it was cow’s milk.” She remembers it as “one of the most exciting moments” of her life.
This article first appeared on Vanity Fair France.
The post Nicole Kidman Chugged a Glass of Milk on Stage, Recreating a Kinky Babygirl Scene appeared first on Glamour.
