Nicole Kidman felt “protected” by director Halina Reijn on the set of their erotic thriller Babygirl.

In the new movie, the Australian actress plays a high-powered CEO who embarks on a forbidden love affair with an intern, played by Harris Dickinson.

During a press conference at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, Kidman insisted that Reijn made her feel comfortable on set.

“I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me. However anyone interprets that, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it,” she said, reports Variety. “There was enormous caretaking by all of us, we were all very gentle with each other and helped each other. It felt very authentic, protected and, at the same time, real.”

The Moulin Rouge! actress noted that it was refreshing to see an erotic thriller written by a woman and told through the female gaze.

“This is one woman’s story and this is, I hope, a very liberating story,” she continued. “It’s told by a woman, through her gaze – Halina wrote it and she directed it – and that’s to me what made it so unique because suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material. It was very dear to our shared instincts and very freeing.”

However, Kidman admitted she was very nervous about premiering the provocative film to the public later that day.

“This definitely leaves me exposed and vulnerable and frightened and all of those things when it’s given to the world, but making it with these people here was delicate and intimate,” she explained.

Babygirl, also starring Antonio Banderas and Sophie Wilde, will be released in cinemas in December.

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