Among many other reasons, we come to Nicole Kidman movies to watch her have fun. And she has a lot of fun as Brooke in “ A Family Affair ,” her new May-December rom-com co-starring Zac Efron as movie star Chris and Joey King as Chris’ assistant (and Brooke’s daughter), Zara. They live in that luxe world of designer clothes, Vogue freebies, and the perfect evening gown for a gala — but in true rom-com fashion, their lives are a much more relatable mess, just waiting for a meet cute.
Brooke and Chris have a particularly memorable one. Attempting to reconcile with the now-fired Zara, Chris stops by her house and interrupts Brooke cleaning in an oversized Blondie T-shirt and denim cutoffs. It’s a far cry from how we’ve seen Kidman lately, and something that costume designer Luis Sequeira wanted to be as eye-opening for the audience as it is for Efron.
“We had a few different options for the reproduction T-shirts, and we loved the graphic nature of Blondie,” Sequeira told IndieWire — as did the filmmakers, who added Blondie music to the scene. “That was the first scene in the movie that we actually saw Nicole’s character kind of unwound and very casual, so that was an important statement. And also gives a little bit of history and a kind of kitten sexiness to her.
We needed something that was not appropriate to welcome someone in, which would then give us a reason for a costume change.” That costume change comes with a side of tequila, as Brooke and Chris.
