Babygirl’s age gap is prominent both on the screen and in real life. The A24 movie was written and directed byBodies Bodies Bodies' Halina Reijn, and was favorably received, with a Certified Fresh score of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it was snubbed by the Oscars, Nicole Kidman picked up a Golden Globe nodn for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, andBabygirlwas also named one of the 10 best films of the year by the National Board of Review.
TheBabygirlcastincludes notable performers such as Antonio Banderas, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in his frequent collaborator Pedro Almodóvar’s 2019 moviePain and Glory, and Sophie Wilde, who had her breakout role in the A24 horror hitTalk to Me. However, the core of the story centers on Kidman as CEO Romy Mathis and Harris Dickinson as her intern Samuel, with whom she engages in a prolonged affair that allows both of them to explore their identities and desires, even as it presents a danger to Romy’s professional and personal life.
Nicole Kidman Is Almost 30 Years Older Than Harris Dickinson
Their Birthdays Are Four Days Apart (In Different Decades)
At the time ofBabygirl’s release, which was June 20, 2025, Nicole Kidman was 57 years old, as the Oscar-winning actor was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 17, 2025. Meanwhile, Harris Dickinson was born in London, England, on June 05, 2025, making him 28 years old at the time of the movie’s debut. Filming took place between December 2022 and February 2023, making the actors 56 and 27, respectively, when the movie was shot. Because their birthdates are so close together,their age gap in real life is almost exactly 29 years.
The official screenplay… reveals [the characters'] ages in the screen directions.
This real-life age gap is similar to their characters in the movie. While their ages are not specifically detailed in dialogue, the official screenplay shared onA24’s For Your Consideration website reveals their ages in the screen directions. When Romy is introduced, it is revealed thatshe is 49 years old. This makes sense, considering the facts that her oldest child is a teenager and that she has been married to her husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), for 19 years, something that is specifically stated in dialogue.
The screenplay states that Jacob is 58 years old, making him nine years older than Romy.
Meanwhile, the official screenplay reveals thatSamuel is 25 years old. While he does not have to be 21 to work his side job as a bartender, because bartenders can be 18 years of age in New York State, his age is corroborated by the fact that he is seen alongside Romy at various clubs and bars, the majority of which would most likely require guests to be 21 or older. The ages dictated by the screenplay leave the characters with a 24-year age gap, which is just five years shy of the actors' actual age gap.
Why Babygirl’s Age Gap Is Important For The Story
It Highlights The Characters' Power Dynamics
While the age gap inBabygirlcould be seen as controversial, Halina Reijn recently explained her views on centering the movie around these two characters while speaking withW Magazine. She explained thatrelationships between older men and younger women have been completely normalizedand that “we need to free ourselves” from internalizing the patriarchy. Read her full comments below:
If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane. It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships. We’re not trapped in a box anymore. We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It’s really hard.
In addition to gender-swapping the typical onscreen age gap,Babygirluses the ages of its characters to further its exploration of the power dynamics at playin the story. While Romy has professional power over Samuel, he has personal power over her, as she is allowing herself to be more vulnerable with him than she has ever been with her husband. Additionally, his exposing their affair could also ruin her life, which is something she finds simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. The age gap and the way it affects perceived power dynamics serve to make the situation even more complicated.
Babygirl’s Age Gap Creates A Surprising Nicole Kidman Trend
TheBabygirlage gap is far from a first forNicole Kidman movies. In fact, she had already appeared in another 2024 age gap movie by the time the A24 title premiered. She played the lead role in Netflix’sA Family Affair, which debuted on June 28 and followed an assistant (Joey King) finding herself caught in the middle when her celebrity boss (Zac Efron) and her mother (Kidman) fall in love. Efron was born in San Luis Obispo, California, on August 07, 2025, making him 37 years old and thus20 years younger than his onscreen love interest.
A Family Affair Age Gap Explained: How Much Older Nicole Kidman Is Than Zac Efron
Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron play love interests in the 2024 Netflix romantic comedy A Family Affair – how old are the two stars in real life?
A Family Affairwasnot even the first time Kidman had an onscreen tryst with Zac Efron, as the pair played lovers in the 2012 Lee Daniels movieThe Paperboy, which premiered when Kidman was 45 and Efron was 24. Before that, she had also had an onscreen age gap affair in 1995’sTo Die For, in which her character seduced a teenager played by Joaquin Phoenix, who was 20 when it premiered, compared to her age of 28. Therefore,Babygirlsees Kidman working in very familiar territory.
Babygirl’s Age Gap Compared To Similar Movies
Older Woman/Younger Man Romance Films Are Becoming More Common
WhileBabygirl’s age gap is notable for having the woman being older than the man, there have been more movies lately adopting this trend, with Nicole Kidman’s ownA Family Affairbeing one of the most notable. Alongside that,one of the most recent examples isThe Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway alongside Nicolas Galitzine, which premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2024. While the age gap between Anne Hathaway (42) and Nicolas Galitzine (30) isn’t as large as Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, it is still a major aspect of the film.
2024 featured several, actually, as Laura Dern (58) played opposite Liam Hemsworth (35) inLonely Planet, where their romance blossoms at a writer’s getaway in Morocco. It’s even worth going back to 1967 forThe Graduate, which features arguably the most popular older woman/younger man age gap in film history, as Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson struck up an affair with Dustin Hoffman’s Benjamin, though the real-life gap between Anne Bancroft and Hoffman was only six years. Still, films likeBabygirlgo a long way in exploring different types of relationships on film.
Sources:A24&W Magazine
Babygirl
Babygirl revolves around a high-powered CEO who risks her career and family by engaging in a passionate affair with her much younger intern. Released in 2024, this narrative explores themes of ambition, power dynamics, and personal sacrifice.
