Halina Reijn defends the age gap relationship between Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in her new film, Babygirl.

Nicole Kidman stars in Babygirl as a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). Some have taken shots at Babygirl for the significant age gap between the two main characters, but director Halina Reijn has defended it.

“If we see a movie where the male actor is the same age as the female actor, we find that odd. Which is insane,” Reijn told W Magazine. “It should completely be normalized that the age gaps switch and that women have different relationships. We’re not trapped in a box anymore. We internalize the male gaze, we internalize patriarchy, and we need to free ourselves from it. It’s really hard.” We’ve had decades of movies with an older man in a relationship with a younger woman, which has more or less been accepted, but it does feel like audiences take more notice when it’s the other way around.

Reijn added that she views Babygirl as more of a “warning” rather than an endorsement of this type of age gap relationship. “My movie is a warning,” Reijn said. “What happens if you say, ‘No, I am perfect. I don’t have any blemishes on my soul. I’m not even aging—I look fertile even though I’m 55’? I wanted to tell the story of a woman who suppresses the beast inside her—and then it wakes up.“

Our own Chris Bumbray caught Babygirl at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, saying it “tackles issues of consent, grooming, and coercion head-on but dares to allow the audience to make up their own mind about what’s appropriate or not.” He continued: “It’s a brave role for Kidman, who does things here many other actresses of her stature wouldn’t dare. In an era where movie makers seem reluctant at all to put sex on the screen, Babygirl is different in that it’s totally built around a sexual relationship many would deem inappropriate… It’s controversial, but it’s also one of the sexier films to come along in recent memory. Kidman deserves major praise for her consistent refusal to play it safe as an actress.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.

Babygirl is now playing in theaters.