EXCLUSIVE: Nicole Kidman Schools Elle Fanning on Impure Thoughts in Titillating 'The Beguiled' Clip
There's much ado about "the Christian thing to do" in The Beguiled -- it is the sole reason an injured Yankee soldier, Corporal McBurney (Colin Farrell), is taken in by Miss Farnsworth's Seminary for Young Ladies. But in this clip, premiering on ET, Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) asks her students to reflect on the corporal's presence and one young lady's thoughts are of a different Biblical variety.
"Maybe the sight of him will remind us there's something else in the world, besides lessons," Elle Fanning's Alicia coyly replies, to which Miss Martha demurs, "It seems to me that is all there should be for any young lady your age."
The Beguiled is a Civil War-set thriller about how one man's presence affects the lives of each woman at the school, from headmistress Martha to schoolteacher Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) to Alicia and down to the youngest young lady.
"That is what I liked about the story. It is about a group of women, and it is from 12 years old to late 40s and they are all interacting with this man in a different way," Coppola told ET during the film's press day. "I have been those different stages, so I can relate to each one of them. Just working with the cast of so many women in different stages was really exciting. I had never done that before."
The movie debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this summer, where Coppola won the highly coveted award for Best Director. She is only the second female director to do so.
"I was thrilled, of course, especially because I just felt so much love from all the women in my life," Coppola explained. "I think there was a lot of happiness from female artists, so it was exciting just to have that be talked about and also for people to realize that there have been so few in history. So, hopefully that is changing more."
Watch the official trailer for The Beguiled below:
The Beguiled is out in L.A. and NYC now and expanding into select theaters on June 30.