There’s an A24 Easter Egg in Babygirl
There are certain signs you’re watching an A24 movie. Maybe there’s an evil bird. Maybe someone gets set on fire. Maybe the whole thing looks like this. The studio’s new erotic drama Babygirl, in which Nicole Kidman plays a She-EO who gets dommed by an intern played by Harris Dickinson, has found a new way to signal that it’s an A24 movie. It’s not just the film’s explicit sex scenes, or its clear desire to bait the discourse around workplace power dynamics, but something much simpler: It was shot in A24’s own New York office.
I’m not trying to doxx an independent film studio here — multiple people inside and outside the company mentioned this after Babygirl’s Venice premiere. Many of the scenes set at Kidman’s robotics company were in fact shot at A24’s office in what I like to call the Ace Hotel micro-neighborhood of Manhattan. The first hint came in a scene set outside the building’s entrance, which features a distinct set of concrete columns, as well as the unmissably large street address. Exteriors are one thing, but then a few scenes later, it hit me — I’d seen that staircase before. (If you’re wondering how a journalist knows what the inside of the A24 office looks like, the company occasionally hosts screenings there, though they may stop after reading this post.)
Not every scene was shot in the actual office. Otherwise I’m sure director Halina Reijn would have made use of their bathrooms, which resemble those in the world’s swankiest airport lounge. The way I’ve heard it is: Production took place over the holidays, the office was empty, so why not? A24’s success has come in part from eschewing traditional forms of spending, particularly in marketing. Perhaps cutting down on location fees is just the next logical step.
Anyway, I know how thrilling it can be to see your real-life workplace on screen. In season two of Succession, Kendall Roy visited the offices of Vaulter, in scenes that were shot in our old building on Varick Street, a few floors up from the New York Magazine offices. That didn’t end well for Vaulter, whose name was suspiciously similar to our own. Thankfully, Babygirl has a happier ending, so we can concentrate on what’s really important: Their coffee machine looks great.