Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron Reveal NSFW Original Title of Their New Romcom: ‘We Jumped at It!’ (Exclusive)

“There isn’t enough of them. There’s a dearth,” Nicole Kidman says of the flipped May-December romance at the heart of her and Zac Efron’s new Netflix movie ‘A Family Affair’

Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron’s new Netflix romantic comedy was not always called A Family Affair.

“Originally, it had a different title,” Kidman, 57, reveals, while the pair spoke with PEOPLE about their new movie. “It was called Motherf—–,” Efron, 36, explains. “Beeped out,” Kidman adds. “Somehow that didn’t make it onto the Netflix title.”
Still, the arresting title made an impact as the two initially considered the project. “That made the script stay at the top of the pile,” Efron says. “It’s like, what on Earth could this be about?”

A Family Affair reunites Kidman and Efron 12 years after they first appeared together on the big screen in the chilling 2012 drama The Paperboy, in which they also played lovers. This time, Efron portrays a self-absorbed movie star who falls for the writer mother (Kidman) of his personal assistant (Joey King).

“I jumped. I think we both kind of did. We jumped at it,” Efron says of the pair’s enthusiasm to work together again. “It was like, this is perfect. What better way to reconnect? And we get to have fun.”

Kidman says the movie’s flipped May-December romance highlights that “there isn’t enough” of such films challenging the norm. “There’s a dearth,” she says. “We’ve had it from way back with older men and younger women, that’s just always been the norm — it’s okay, it’s completely acceptable.”

“The problem is we’ve not had the equivalent from all different viewpoints, with women telling the stories. And we need game men,” she adds. “[Zac] came in and makes the film because he was like, ‘I’m here to have fun, to play, and to very much be a part of this and be there for you’ — for both Joey and I.”

For Efron, making another movie with Kidman a dozen years after he first worked with her remains something of a dream come true. Filming for the rom-com also collided with his prep to play a wrestler in last year’s critically acclaimed wrestling drama The Iron Claw.

“I’m still so enamored with Nicole,” Efron says. “There’s a part of me that pinches myself when I realize who I’m working with a lot. I think that was more pronounced during The Paperboy because I was a lot younger. I was very nervous back then.”