Harris Dickinson’s role in this year’s most-talked-about film, Babygirl, isn’t lost on him. “Anxiety,” he laughs, when I ask the biggest takeaway from his character, Samuel.

I can’t blame him for being daunted by it all. The 28-year-old East Londoner has been firmly thrust into our collective consciousness for his role in Halina Reijn’s film, as the provocative, boyish intern who begins an affair with his much older boss, Romy (Nicole Kidman). 

“He has a real honesty to him, or a naivety, which I appreciate, because sometimes we have been accustomed to build barriers and protect ourselves, and even in the way we interact day to day… Sometimes it's really guarded and manufactured and protective,” Dickinson observes about Samuel.

“But you don't want it too much. You don't want to be, like, a cocky boy,” he laughs.

There’s not an ounce of cockiness to Dickinson, despite the fact that it’s hard to scroll TikTok these days without sideswiping some kind of fan edit of the actor. A current favourite on the app is a clip borrowed from Babygirl, where a topless Dickinson dances, as Samuel, to George Michael’s ‘Father Figure’. 

“That was a day where I was like, this is probably the most embarrassing thing,” he recalls. “Like, I love dancing. I'm always dancing, but doing it in front of a load of people on your own with your top off is like, ‘ah okay, maybe I need a little drink. Maybe I need to take a moment.’”

Babygirl doesn’t shy away from embarrassment – in fact, it’s rife with it. While some films might apply a kind of slick Hollywood treatment to sex scenes, Reijn’s creation is more interested in the awkwardness that punctuates real-life intimacy. 

“I was always intrigued about Helena's perspective on it, because I think with this film, there's a danger that some of it could have been overly sensationalised or overly explicit. And I think she was always very intent that these scenes had to have an element of rawness and vulnerability and also, like, ugliness as well,” he says. “But then also, equally, on the flip side is, like the humour within those scenes, like, to be able to laugh at each other, and to be able to laugh at yourself when you're doing something that is incredibly embarrassing.”

“Unless it's like, a complete comedy, you know, like… What's that film with Leslie Mann? The 40 Year Old Virgin! But there's rarely scenes where you get to explore that version of sex, which I'm interested in.”

Of course, Dickinson had a masterful collaborator in Nicole Kidman for those more intimate scenes, who unashamedly brings the complicated character of Romy to life. "When you've got good people like Nicole and Helena, and we had an amazing intimacy coordinator called Lizzie Talbot, who was just brilliant at setting the right atmosphere and creating the correct boundaries… Once we had those things, there was a real flow and creativity and collaboration," he reflects.

The dynamic between Romy and Samuel is constantly in flux. Throughout their unconventional love affair, both characters grapple with their own desires, often surprising themselves with what they are capable of. I’m curious as to when the last time Dickinson felt that kind of surprise in real life.  “Recently I've been like, involuntarily getting involved [in things] when I don't want to,” he muses. “Like, being in the middle of something that I shouldn't be in the middle of. And I feel like that's surprised me, because I'm all for just like… keeping my head down, staying out of trouble, and then all of a sudden I'm like, ‘Why am I in this situation where I'm like… helping an old lady out of a tree?’” he laughs. “I'm always just saving all the women. I can’t help myself. I just climb up there and grab ‘em down.”

While Babygirl isn’t the first hit Dickinson has been attached to – Triangle of Sadness, Where The Crawdads Sing, Iron Claw, and Scrapper are also up there – it’s clear with this latest role, he’s unlocked a new level of stardom. As it always is, the internet is already rife with rumours about the actor’s next project, with many speculating that Dickinson could be in line to play John Lennon in the upcoming Beatles biopic. It would be doing a disservice to fan girls across the globe to end our chat without touching on the rumours, but Dickinson is tight-lipped about a possible musical movie. “It’s a musical about me, an older woman up a tree, and a fast, fast getaway,” he laughs. I, for one, would definitely buy a ticket to that.

Babygirl is in Australian cinemas on Thursday, January 30.