Please don't ask “Babygirl” star Harris Dickinson to call you a 'good girl' (exclusive)

"People need to look past the eroticism of it," the actor says. "It's a very nuanced film."

Babygirl doesn't even hit theaters until Christmas, but Harris Dickinson is already over people asking him to call them a "good girl."

The phrase has captured a lot of attention in the film's trailer, where Dickinson's Samuel first uses it to tame an aggressive dog before later addressing Romy (Nicole Kidman), his boss and lover, with the same terminology. It's a delicious moment (we don't blame you if it turned you on a little), but Dickinson hopes that the film's message transcends this potential new catchphrase.

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"Someone came up to me off the street and said, 'Oh, can you say, 'Good girl?'" Dickinson recounts to Entertainment Weekly. "I said, 'No, come on, man. Don't ask me to say that.' People need to look past the eroticism of it. It's a very nuanced film. It's so much about liberation and the consequences of too much constraint. It's important that that's what people are talking about as well."

Dickinson, who is becoming a go-to actor for projects that require a certain level of intensity (see: The Iron Claw, Where the Crawdads Sing, Blitz), found himself facing his own questions of liberation by even signing on to the project. He stars as Samuel, an intern at a major corporation who feels an immediate connection to the company’s CEO, Romy. When their professional relationship escalates into something sexual, they find themselves caught in a shifting power dynamic that probes questions of control and desire.

"We take turns holding the power," Dickinson muses. "Samuel definitely has a weapon in the sense that he's a younger coworker, and he's in a much, much lower role at the company. In any world, it's pretty obvious that those power dynamics and relationships can be problematic — and he holds that as a bit of a tactic. But also, there's a directness to him that pierces through Romy's professionalism very quickly."

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Indeed, Dickinson stresses that it's less about Samuel seizing power as it is that he holds it precisely because she is his professional superior. "She keeps referencing her concern for hurting him and for the age gap," says Dickinson. "But actually, he is the one that can control this situation and potentially make this a bigger thing if needed."

In this way, Samuel uses his lower status to show Romy that she might actually crave domination, tapping into a desire for humiliation that she has trouble even admitting to herself. "We're trying to subvert what we'd seen in this genre," Dickinson explains. "It's about embarrassment, performative behavior, and trying things out with someone that you desire — and what that means in all of its ugliness."

"It's all about, 'Okay, let me try and act out what someone wants from a scenario,'" he continues. "It's giving and taking. It's a certain generosity and understanding of what it is someone wants. It goes beyond just sex. It's also about behavior and love languages and all of that stuff. How does someone want to be treated? How do they respond best? There's a release for both of them in this relationship. They find this sense of freedom within themselves."

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Despite that subversion of the genre, writer-director Halina Reijn also regularly sent films to Dickinson and Kidman as reference points for their work. Titles included 2001's The Piano Teacher, 1992's Damage, and 1988's Dangerous Liaisons. Though he doesn't mention it, one also can't help but think of another psychosexual drama in which Kidman explores her sexuality — Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.

Indeed, much like Samuel does with Romy, Dickinson had to face off against the intimidating record of a professional elder stateswoman. "I had to try and hold my own because, given Samuel's dynamic, I couldn't really go in and be a kid quaking in my boots. I had to own it a bit, be myself and try and get past the mystique of Nicole."

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One way for him to do that was to engage with Kidman's desire to test boundaries and throw herself into complex characters and situations, something he's eager to replicate. "She's drawn to dangerous stories and difficult subjects," he muses. "She is a provocative, thoughtful, intelligent artist that wants to push the envelope in every sense of the word. She's radical in her approach and bold every time. I'm just so grateful that I got to be a part of that."

Reijn sets the film apart in distinct ways, using very little nudity in scenes of Romy and Samuel's liaison. Instead, she focuses on interior experience, the line between private and public, and the notion that true intimacy comes with emotional nakedness.

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"Halina was never interested in showing explicit sex scenes," confirms Dickinson. "Showing sex on film can often be so corny and unnecessarily voyeuristic. It's more interesting to show the awkwardness of sex, or if you're going to show nudity, then the vulnerability and how exposing that is. Being seen and finding truth together is more sexy than just getting your kit off and shooting a sex scene in the way that's been done over and over."

But the film isn't only about Romy's liberation and sexual identity — it is also about Samuel's learning curve as he tries to figure out whether he actually wants control or is merely trying to deliver what Romy (or society) might expect from him. "It's all about them navigating those boundaries," he says. "The line gets blurred constantly. He wants control, but he also doesn't know how to do it. And he's misunderstanding his own masculinity. It's complicated to understand where you fit into the world as a young man and how you should act. There's a certain confusion around who he's supposed to be. He's good at taking control, but there's times where he also wants to be vulnerable and understand more about who he is and what all of this means."

At the end of the day, isn't that what we all desire, babygirl?