Halina Reijn

1 sketch, 10 claims, and 5 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Big Picture: The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ (guest)

Loves the 90s sexual thrillers but thinks they were sexist; calls humor a Trojan horse for dark material, prefers suggestion to two bodies just moving, and loves George Michael's Father Figure as her life anthem. Fan of A24's willingness to follow her into dark ideas, and a self-described prude from radical hippies. Last great thing she saw was The Brutalist.

Stances

  • Babygirl is a comedy of manners about power, sex and generations
  • America allows her to dream big while Europe weighs her down with history
  • Wanted a feminist film that includes masculinity

Humor: Warm and self-mocking, ready to laugh at her own neuroses and her single status.

In their words

  • “For me, that's the most sexual scene.” (2:30:39)
  • “I am a prude.” (2:30:13)
  • “I am obsessed with the brutalists.” (2:35:20)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

Their claims

Showing 1–10 of 10 claims.

  1. career (career): Babygirl → Bodies Bodies Bodies. Blending tension and laughter was the same tonal search she began on Bodies Bodies Bodies.
    “that with bodies, of course, we also really had to search for that.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:06:29 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Halina Reijn → Paul Verhoeven. Reijn says she and Verhoeven are similar, earthy and Dutch with cynical, ironic humor.
    “The Dutch have a lot of cynical, ironic humor.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:09:26 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (lineage): Babygirl → Basic Instinct. Reijn set out to converse with the 90s and early-2000s sexual thrillers she loved but found sexist.
    “I wanted to be in conversation with all the sexual thrillers that I so loved in the 90s and the early 2000s, but then I also thought were incredibly sexist and not human.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:16:04 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (contrast): Babygirl → Fatal Attraction. Reijn made a thriller where every character is ambiguous, unlike the villain and angel of Fatal Attraction.
    “I like there is in fatal attraction or so I really wanted to create my own path in that sense.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:16:30 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. people (people): Harris Dickinson → Triangle of Sadness. Reijn found Dickinson by chance at the Triangle of Sadness premiere in New York while casting Samuel.
    “went to see the premiere of Triangle of Sadness in New York.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:25:04 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. people (people): Harris Dickinson → Beach Rats. After the premiere she went home and watched Beach Rats and got obsessed with casting him.
    “And then I went home and I immediately watched beach rats.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:25:23 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. career (career): Halina Reijn → George Michael. Reijn calls 'Father Figure' her lifelong anthem, tied to losing her father at 10, before it became the film's song.
    “father figure has become my anthem of my life, I lost my father when I was very young.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:32:44 · Halina Reijn (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. craft (craft): Babygirl → George Michael. Reijn chose Father Figure before writing: a younger man acting fatherly over an older woman with the power.
    “I thought, 0 my god, father figure has all these elements, and if you play that, under a scene where this younger man acts fatherly over this older woman that has all the power, that could be so interesting.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:33:19 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  9. craft (craft): Babygirl → Yellow Claw. The rave, the film's climax, was made by Dutch DJs Yellow Claw to be the young people's world.
    “rave, uh, composed or do you call that composed created by my friends of Yellow Claw?”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:34:20 · Halina Reijn (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. programming (programming): Babygirl → The Brutalist. Reijn's last great thing seen is The Brutalist; Sean agrees it is his favorite of the year.
    “I am obsessed with the brutalists.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:35:20 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–5 of 5 fun items.

  1. fun, about Babygirl: Reijn writes by playing all the parts herself in her little house.
    “No, I write very much, um, I just play all the parts.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:10:25 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Babygirl: Kidman's husband has a baby girl tattoo on his neck and calls her that, which is why she was obsessed with the title.
    “and she immediately got obsessed because apparently her husband has a tattoo of baby girl in his neck and he calls her baby girl in there.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:19:09 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Babygirl: The milk scene is, per Reijn, the most sexual scene: nothing happens, they never touch, he says good girl as he passes.
    “For me, that's the most sexual scene.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:30:39 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Babygirl: George Michael's Father Figure is Reijn's anthem; she lost her father at ten and got the rights before writing the script.
    “And so even before I started writing a new father figure, because father figure has become my anthem of my life, I lost my father when I was very young.”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:32:44 · Halina Reijn (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Babygirl: Kidman could not be dragged off the dance floor in between takes during the rave shoot.
    “you couldn't get drag her off the dance floor in between takes”
    The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 2:34:42 · Halina Reijn (0.85 sure it was them)