Antonio Banderas talks keeping Nicole Kidman 'safe' in erotic thriller Babygirl

Antonio Banderas did everything he could to make Nicole Kidman "feel safe" filming the "complicated scenes" in their erotic thriller 'Babygirl'.

The 64-year-old actor plays Nicole's character Romy Mathis' husband Jacob in the X-rated flick, which sees her have a sordid affair with a young intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), at the robotics firm she owns.

And the 'Puss in Boots' star gushed that he and Nicole, 57, have a "beautiful relationship" after working together on the intense movie.

He told PEOPLE: "I am a huge fan of her. She's one of my favourite actors of all time, actually. I admire and respect her and now I think we have a beautiful relationship because sharing this movie was very special."

He added: "It was a very complicated movie, difficult.

"It required a lot from everybody, from the director, from all the actors, and we were conscious of that. And so you have to put yourself on the right path."

Antonio added that despite it being a challenging film to make, Nicole was a breeze to work with.

He continued: "And it was very easy with her. She was totally committed to what she was doing. Kind, generous, professional.

"She made me feel safe. And I think I just tried the same to make her feel safe, especially those scenes that are complicated."

Jacob and Samuel end up in a fight after he founds out about the affair and Antonio heaped praise on his co-star and said he felt "very secure with him".

He said: "We were both very careful about all the movement, how to throw a punch, how to just grab, how to fall on the ground, getting on tables, breaking furniture, stuff like that.

"He was great working with, he's got a great timing, and I felt very secure with him."

Antonio added that everyone that worked on the Halina Reijn film "behaved very accordingly".

He concluded: "We knew that when we were shooting.

So we were prepared and everybody behaved very accordingly to just what was needed, what the director needed ... I'm very happy I did that movie."

Nicole, who landed a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her portrayal of Romy, recently praised the director for making her and her co-stars feel protected on set.

She told PEOPLE: “There’s a sort of a jump off the cliff thing where you go, okay, I’m just going to abandon everything and explore this with the people that I trust in a genre that is already set, but hopefully we can explore new territory and especially with the female at the helm.

“You have your director at the helm going, ‘I will protect you. Nothing that’s going to be in the film will be anything that you are not comfortable with. You are going to be okay.’”