Harris Dickinson condemns inappropriate fan behaviour after ‘Babygirl’ success: “People are strange”
Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson has condemned how many fans of the film sexualised him following the success of the Nicole Kidman-fronted steamy drama.
In Babygirl, released in December 2024, Dickinson played an ambitious intern who fell into a sadomasochistic relationship with the boss of his new company, played by Kidman. Dickinson shared that he “didn’t really enjoy” the majority of fan responses to his dominant character.
Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Dickinson elaborated, “I’m proud to have worked on it, I love Halina [Rejin, the writer, director and producer] and working with Nicole was the most exciting thing for me. But the way the fans reduced some of it was quite strange. You can’t really control that and you can’t really get caught up in it, but people are strange.”
He mused on the gender dynamics of the issue, adding, “I think it’s OK to do this to male actors, weirdly. That’s the problem. I think it’s become OK and acceptable to do that to younger male actors. I get a lot of women say things to me that are deeply inappropriate.”
After explaining that there were many “completely unacceptable” moments in the Q&A segments in the press tour, he added, “And you’re expected to just laugh it off. I think that’s why I struggled with that experience.”
The issue followed him everywhere. On a recent flight, he shared, “someone was like, can you dance for me?” he said. “Then she’s like, ‘Oh, you won’t believe what I was [doing] when I watched that film. I won’t say the rest.’ And it’s like, that is not OK. I don’t want to know about your sexual experiences with this story. It is odd.”
Expanding on the complex, nuanced depiction of sexual power in the movie, Far Out wrote previously, “Refusing to minimise it to just a romance plot like many other dom-sub dynamics in cinema, Babygirl provides space and gaps for confusion in which to explore deeper into the two roles, even if the dom is explored simply by not really exploring it at all as the doubts and unknowns are Samuel is exactly where his nuance lies.”
Harrison’s directorial debut, Urchin, wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival. It will hit cinemas in the UK from October 3rd.
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