Early in “Babygirl,” a wife springs a surprise on her husband during foreplay. Romy (Nicole Kidman), a no-nonsense CEO, asks Jacob (Antonio Banderas) to cover her face with a pillow. He’s eager to please -- but it’s just too weird for him. “I can’t like this,” he says, laughing. “I feel like a villain.”

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson star in the new erotic thriller Babygirl, and come Christmas Day, they will have plenty of people talking about those steamy scenes. There was one key to their onscreen chemistry.

Nicole Kidman stars in the intentionally provocative “Babygirl,” a sexual study with a sense of humor about its delicate subject.

The Oscar-winning actor delivers a no-holds-barred, everything-bared performance as a woman who finds sexual liberation through domination.