Babygirl is A24’s latest erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson as a successful entrepreneur and her much younger intern who strike up a romance as their professional lives grow dangerously intertwined. It’s an extremely romantic but also surprisingly funny film about the complex dynamics of power and Sєx, and how these two ideas are often inseparably bound. Babygirl is now available on VOD, and for many audiences, it may be their first introduction to co-lead Harris Dickinson.
Dickinson has appeared in several fascinating projects over the years, though his acting career began in a much different place than he’s in now. The actor is best known for his comedic roles in films such as Kingsman and Triangle of Sadness, but Babygirl is totally unlike anything Dickinson has done before. He’s making an obvious transition towards darker, more dramatic characters in recent years, and it’s absolutely working to his benefit. This pattern first started in 2023, with his gut-wrenching supporting performance in Sean Durkin’s wrestling drama The Iron Claw.
Harris Dickinson Is Even Better In The Iron Claw Than In Babygirl
The Actor Delivered His Strongest Performance Yet In 2023
While Babygirl is one of Harris Dickinson’s first mainstream lead roles, The Iron Claw is the project that first proved his immense talent as an actor. The film centers around the real-life Von Erich brothers, who made history as compeтιтive wrestlers in the 1980s before their lives crumbled under the pressure of their father-turned-manager’s fierce expectations. What follows is a harrowing, heart-breaking depiction of the trauma and suffering the brothers experienced in their pursuit of becoming the best wrestlers the sport has ever seen.
Dickinson played David von Erich in The Iron Claw, the older younger brother of Zac Efron’s protagonist and the unintentional antagonist of the film’s first act. He shows a natural gift for wrestling that makes him their father’s chosen champion, causing friction between the brothers and sparking an ongoing conflict between them. Dickinson does a brilliant job of exploring how ambition, success, and family are concepts that can’t always co-exist, delivering a very emotional performance that speaks to the film’s central tenet of sacrificing everything in pursuit of self-acceptance.
Dickinson’s Iron Claw Role Is Completely Different From His Babygirl Character
The Two Projects Display Dickinson’s Range
The Iron Claw has become a streaming hit in the year since its release, and Dickinson’s performance has finally begun to receive the recognition it deserves. His character is wholly different from his role in Babygirl, where he’s a much more domineering force who uses Sєx and romance as his personal weapons to climb the social ladder. The film is an illicit exploration of how social status isn’t always representative of people’s self-worth, and Dickinson’s character embodies that entirely.
However, there are still some similarities between these two projects and Dickinson’s roles within them. In both films, the actor plays a character who strives to be perceived as the best version of himself, breaking free of his own social standing by exploiting the talents at his disposal. They’re both performative individuals, but in The Iron Claw he’s performing to a crowd of spectators and in Babygirl he’s performing to Nicole Kidman’s protagonist. There is love between these characters, but their dynamic is much more complicated and centralized around power than romance.
The Iron Claw And Babygirl Prove That Harris Dickinson Should Take More Dramatic Roles
The Actor Thrives In Darker, More Mature Roles
Ultimately, both The Iron Claw and Babygirl prove that Harris Dickinson’s transition to more serious, dramatic roles has been entirely successful thus far. Despite making a name for himself in projects like Kingsman, the actor has shown real restraint and consideration in the projects he’s accepted recently, forging an image of himself as a versatile actor who can’t necessarily be typecast. Babygirl is so different from the roles that most of his peers would thrive in, but that merely proves how adaptable he is.
The way he navigates this character, just like his role in The Iron Claw, is done with such maturity and empathy that it’s impossible not to get sucked into the story – which is likely what director Halina Reijn was intending.
Although audiences haven’t really connected with Babygirl, the film has proven to be a critical hit that will certainly help boost Dickinson’s career in the future. The way he navigates this character, just like his role in The Iron Claw, is done with such maturity and empathy that it’s impossible not to get sucked into the story – which is likely what director Halina Reijn was intending.
