Harris Dickinson’s ‘Babygirl’ Character Is a Cancer, According to Halina Reijn

"He's very sensible, very sexual, very strong, but also incredibly vulnerable. He communicates Cancer, don't you think?" the acclaimed filmmaker said at a recent Q&A.

By Audra Heinrichs | December 16, 2024 | 5:20pm

Photo: A24 Entertainment Movies

Harris Dickinson’s ‘Babygirl’ Character Is a Cancer, According to Halina Reijn

Disclaimer: This blog contains spoilers for Babygirl.

When Halina Reijn began writing one of 2024’s buzziest films, Babygirl, she drew inspiration from a number of brow-raising places. The film’s setting (New York at Christmastime), for instance, came from Annie, while its narrative emerged from the erotic thrillers of the 90s that she found “therapeutic,” save for all the bunny-boiling. As for the complex questions it seeks to answer, those were pulled right from her own experiences.

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“Is it possible to love and accept all these layers of myself? Even the beast-like layers? Like, when a hair grows out of my nipple, I want to kill myself but can I look at it and go, ‘what a beautiful hair?’ Can I transcend patriarchy?” the acclaimed filmmaker asked the audience at a New York City screening and Q&A on Sunday. “Can I look at myself through a female lens?”

Babygirl follows Romy (Nicole Kidman), a high-powered — and equally high-strung — CEO seeking escape from her own shame and sexual suppression. She finds it via a BDSM-tinged affair with Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a young intern at her e-commerce company. If the story sounds familiar, it’s made anew by Reijn’s refusal to portray a “boring strong female” and instead, a woman who’s both steadfast in her ambition and totally starved for vulnerability. Even when Romy bemoans being brought to her knees, it’s obvious that she’s simultaneously begging for it. Succumbing to her desire doesn’t lead to her downfall either. Refreshingly, she’s awarded with a happy ending (literally). Not only is Romy empowered to lasciviously lap up milk from a saucer like a cat, but she also gets to keep her career, family, and, in Reijn’s words, the beast within.

Reijn’s portrayal of masculinity also makes the film all the more provocative. Even at his most authoritative, Samuel isn’t simply a cardboard caricature of a dom (read: Christian Grey). He wants to be at Romy’s mercy, too. Example: that “Father Figure” dance break. Gaining purchase over the other manifests in a number of ways, like one notable exchange that sees Romy asking for Samuel’s star sign. He answers the way most heterosexual men do: “I don’t believe in that shit.”

During the Q&A on Sunday, I asked Reijn whether or not she had an astrological sign in mind when writing Samuel’s character. Her answer was finite.

“I was raised on astrology, literally,” Reijn began. “Like, if I told my mother, ‘I don’t have the money to pay my rent this month,’ she’d be like, ‘Well, that’s because you’re a Scorpio.’ So, him saying ‘I don’t believe in that shit’ is literally how I always feel when I try to ask my boyfriends or my lovers ‘What’s your star sign?'”

“But for me, he would definitely be a Cancer,” she concluded. “He’s very sensible, very sexual, very strong, but also incredibly vulnerable. He communicates Cancer, don’t you think?”

When I protested, suggesting he struck me as an air sign like an Aquarius, she insisted: “No, he’s a water sign.”

Since Babygirl premiered to overwhelming acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, Reijn’s third film has kept the cultural zeitgeist in a chokehold. In September, Vulture theorized that it was “the year’s hottest movie.” Indeed, with every new revelation about the film — the milk! the cookies! the good girl affirmations! — the internet hasn’t called for a safe word. Now that I’ve seen it, the reaction is justified.

“This movie is about ‘Is the beast in me, or is the beast outside of me?'” Reijn said. Of the answer to that particular question, I’m not quite sure yet. Perhaps it’s both. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably just have fun pondering it. Like, I occasionally suffer from unrelenting, distinctly Catholic guilt as it pertains to sex and milk activates my gag reflex but if the right person sent a glass my way and dared me to drink it at a bar (an exchange based on one Reijn later confirmed she actually had with a Dutch film actor), would I make like a Got Milk ad? The answer is a resounding yes. And this one, specifically.

“Everybody recognizes suppression when it comes to sexuality,” Reijn said. “I am, too, very suppressed. But I was trying to tell myself that it’s okay to be whoever you are and the assignment in life is to come closer to your authentic self…however hard that is.”

I can’t believe I’m writing this but I concur. Cancer men, it’s OK to be who you are…so long as you’re Harris Dickinson.