Conversations with Nicole Kidman & Reese Witherspoon of BIG LITTLE LIES

hello oh I was gonna introduce them but they did my work for me no that's okay well I would say safe to say you do not need any introduction but this is Reese Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman so I'm curious how many of you had seen first of all the series at large but also season two and the finale Wow look at that how are you so this this was a second viewing for most of you and did it play differently did it feel different the second time we're just sort of a you wanted to see it again because it was so great big screen yes changes the experience well thank you all for being here the two of you I can't imagine how busy you are you've had a few new projects come out in the last few weeks Reese are you holding up you're good you look rested in Nicole amazing work on bombshell so impressive congratulations and the morning show of course goes without saying wonderful yes congratulations so I know we see lots of friends when we're up here I would love to know what you remember about the very first time you met each other and I have a feeling it wasn't on this project that you don't know when I met you somewhere you're like no it's not bad it's good okay so you had just won the Oscar for Moulin Rouge she didn't win the Oscar for me Waverly never nominated no it was Moulin Rouge I didn't win the Oscar for Lola she won for the hour two hours okay for the hours everyone for the hours and you were backstage to the Oscars and I was there and I was like oh my god that's Nicole gibbon oh my god she's my biggest Idol oh my god I have to ask her questions and I did I think I corned you and I was like I have so many questions for you I'm so excited to meet you and you were so nice and lovely that's nice and what questions should you have fine so I'm sure I was shaking and in shock wasn't Jacque and I bombarded you what question did you ask Greece what did you sing what was it like working on Moulin Rouge I don't know I just went for the hours and do you have recollection of this interaction I have a recollection because we have a Nashville connection right so I live in Nashville um southern Oishi's know nashville en yes so I just remember us being always sort of crossing paths but actually being in Nashville at a party one night it had a singer called Ronnie Dunn's house yeah and and that's probably my most vivid memory of us really connecting his friends and that was such an amazing night because what they do down there after they have an awards show they have a massive party and all the muses go and everyone hangs and people are invited all of you can come on Wednesday night you ran everyone sort of sings and plays piano and plays yeah and I remember us singing around the piano right I do think I played the bongos that night I was gonna say that hopefully no I'm McConaughey style only McConaughey style guys that's for another reference that imagist I wasn't there but that image is still in my mind from what had happened so in we didn't think we'd get a season 2 of this incredible show and then we found out we would and what was the most difficult but also exciting part for you as actors and revisiting these roles which probably you had in your mind had okay I've closed the book on this exhausting emotionally taxing so when you found out you'd be stepping back into the shoes of these characters what scared you but also excited you made me start with you Reese well I just wanted to make sure that season two lived up to season one and and there was so much love and appreciation for the first season and it felt like it opened people's hearts and minds in a about really important issues like domestic violence and sexual abuse and it felt like we were kind of really talking about things that were super taboo and but we were also doing it from a perspective that was very real very emotionally raw so we just wanted to honor that by making sure season 2 was just as real and and emotional and delivered as well as season 1 and obviously both of your producers as well how did you navigate the artistic piece of being on camera but also behind the scenes ensuring that the quality continued maybe Nicole tell me about that process for you I mean I think everyone the the standard of people working on this is so high and so there's it's just this constant pursuit of excellence it would be how I put it where it's always like how can we make this better is this really are we following this through I mean there's just an incredible collaboration with this show and there's a great friendship and there's obviously six of us now because Meryl Streep is involved and so between the six of us we just really went okay we're going to support each other help each other and really try to carry this thing as a group and get it there but we love doing it because there really isn't I haven't had a chance to play a role like this ever in my career and to do 14 hours of storytelling with these storylines is an extraordinary opportunity as an actor and also and I didn't have that with the cast of Little Women recently and just talking about the revolution of seeing the screen filled with women and they're just there communing with each other and they aren't on the side and they aren't sort of ancillary to the plot they are the heart and soul and I think that's why the show resonated so deeply because you saw elements of your own friendships in these people and I and tell me a little bit about how the show has made you rethink or want to read is that your own relationships friendships family relationships tell me a little bit about that because the sisterhood and motherhood piece of it for me every watched it today and it's like wow that's what this show is about actually and I remember when we were shooting season 1 there were several moments where Nicole and Laura and I would look at each other and go I've never spent this amount of time on screen talking to another woman saying words doing scene work I and having complete character journeys that were our relationships and this was 2007 - when did it come out seventeen thousand seventeen you're thinking it's 2017 is the first time that any of us have had this kind of complex character work with another woman that's ridiculous right right but each of you came up in film so maybe if you're TV you have more of a chance to work with women I'm coming but yeah but we should be versatile Oh to office as film actresses and to have these opportunities to work scenes and go Nick what do you think of this part of like what do you think about this part of the scene and be able to ask like ask dirt or or you you calls a dirt [Laughter] [Applause] my dirt because my name is Laura too so it's confusing my real name is Laura but that's all I think but but you bring up a good point you know in other in other movies you've done or even other television work which I know hasn't been a ton but were you reticent to have that exchange with male with a male actor you know what did you think of that should I just any point in saying what do you think about my emotional growth or are you saying we're not after my husband beat me really badly and then I had to go to school the next day like you I wouldn't ask somebody what that was it was like walking through this emotional journey where I actually had reference people to ask questions of and I remember even in this season I think was like episode three or four I got to do this scene where I went to a therapist and then I got to talk to you right afterwards you would do with your girlfriend you'd be like I had this really shitty therapy session she told me to check myself should go to my friend I'm like what do you thinking she's like wow I think you need to check yourself that's real aw but I learned so much from you guys and and I love that there's scenes in season two of us just sitting in a car talking episode we see that and you really allow that that that's you know I mean is it cinematically extraordinary no but are you letting two actors female actresses sit there and talk which is what we do that's gistic kind of breaking news to the and hopefully it's compelling you know because a lot gets revealed or not revealed and the intertwining of these I what I find extraordinary is that you have all of these storylines that somehow get woven together and they're all rich they're all deep and we really with the second season we wanted that for Zoe and fish Aileen and we wanted that to be revealed more and unraveled more because they're such fine actresses and to have them have those opportunities was really and it was wonderful to see Zoe in particular have a broader storyline we saw more about her life and her backstory and her the mother storyline obviously and dealing with something really topical euthanasia where she's you know I mean that is that's really difficult material to be dealing with on screen well her mother does not want to live and how do you deal with that and those that's really relevant current subject matter as is the domestic violence as is you know I mean when you look at all of the story lines as is Laura's husband who's been living this sort of secret life really scene with the toy I'm losing everything but I mean the depth of that is there is incredible truth in these stories and storylines that have been put together with you know hopefully entertainment but hopefully that's where it hits you here and then it works underneath and that's what we've always loved about this show is that it's working on both levels but you want it to be entertaining which we were so thrilled that people were like we can't wait for the new step and there was that sort of people were pretty obsessed fairly early on it was it was a exciting I've never been in anything like it so for me it was a little show I have a first when you had a career that spanned decades [Laughter] you started we both were very young when you started I mean you know that was the other thing we shares that we started as child actors right raced it Laura did I did she'd agree and so sharing stories about that as well there's a particular you know you navigate something because you're entering into an adult world as a child but without out rules so we've we're very bonded over that as well and Nicole tell me what the emotional toll was of playing this character were you able to say goodbye to her at the end of each day go home be with your family or did she linger to a degree where you started to feel that it was taxing and and by the way you're doing such amazing work I can't imagine how it wouldn't be taxing but were you able to siphon off this is work and then go home and be yourself I've always struggled with that with with this character that's probably been the and I am it's just it just gets in and it's in there and I just struggle with that I'd love to say yep I'm got it down and I'm technically so proficient it sort of but no that's not the case with it and you know there's that that is carried you know but at the same time being able to I mean doing the the the courtroom and doing those things we're actually explaining why I stay and why did stay and why I still have this pull towards him and why I'm behaving the way I'm behaving and then but what I loved is that the way in which David because Celeste is coping she's not she's not completely falling apart and she's not doing really well but she's taking care of her kids she's loving her kids she's doing the best she can do and she's also trying to process an enormous amount and she's not healed because to have presented a woman healed that would have been come that would have been really false to me but to be able to explain on the stand like that that's incredible writing and then to be given the chance to rise and hit her bottom and not actually fall apart but go okay I'm now going to use what tools I have being a lawyer and being able to step in there and fight for her children but you're seeing two mothers who are family members in a court room against that backdrop that's just great writing David gave us that that to play and that's when you go wow how do you twist and turn to get to that creates so much empathy for each of you too because what Merrill's character has gone through is so tragic and that's I think maybe their commonality and that's why they have love for each other is that shared tragedy and there's validity to some of the things mary-louise is saying but as Celeste says I don't I'm not letting you raise my voice but it is actually about you because you did raise parry and parry is what he is you know so it's I it's very complicated and that's why it's really good when you when you can take the text and and strip it down and it's very very dense and and it's so well structured so I do want to talk about Meryl for a minute because it's it's an experience that I'm sure feels unlike anything anyone in this room could have just been in a rehearsal room dancing and singing with today because we're doing a show if we're doing another film called a problem I was like this is bizarre what is my life like out there oh my god Mary Louise you were in Moulin Rouge too so don't let her don't let her take the spotlight but it was interesting looking back thinking if you had worked together before you sort of didn't the hours although you didn't have any scenes together and this was your first time working with Meryl is that right Reese movie with her in 2006 called rendition of course yes or additional it's a great movie so what what is it about working with her that you if you can even possibly articulate this that feels so utterly unique and perhaps otherworldly as compared to other experiences is it is it just the ease with which she does her job and then does that rub off on you or is there still that panic of like oh my god I'm gonna stay with Meryl Streep I'm gonna stay with Meryl Streep does that does that go away or the latter matter okay could you both obviously hold your own very well with her but I'm just wondering you know the wheels kept turning and you just kept you know reminding yourself I mean I kept reminding myself over and over again having these seats of Meryl Streep this is crazy I'd have to like go and check myself and then come back and just go she's just a person she's just a human being and but I have to say the finale watching Nicole and Meryl was one of the most extraordinary moments of my entire life and watching these two I I'll never have an experience like that again watching these two women who I admire so much who are the greatest of what they do spar with each other with words I mean it was literally everybody was gobsmacked at the end and everyone stood up and applauded at the end because what you don't see behind it is that we had we were on a budget and on a time and we had a finite amount of days and we had to shoot 11 hours a day and they had to memorize nine pages of dialogue and it literally it doesn't hinge on camera moves it hinges on their performances and modulating these performances and each look at each other was so important and profound and I learned so much you know I'm like 43 it I was like oh my god I'm learning so much from these two amazing women I was just like I bet it'd come in and I bet it'd be so I prepared just for me when I have to learn dialogue I have to learn it way in advance I don't have that that was my my next question how do you learn your lines now especially this volume where I'm I'm working on it so it's going in through my body there's a particular way in which you can learn so that it's just coming out organically so it's not like oh my gosh I'm learning lines but I do learn it so that it's WordPerfect particularly with this so that because you're she's relying on my cues it's very much like theater in a way and I knew that they would shoot it like that away we would just shoot the whole thing so we wouldn't cut so it was just like you have to be ready to go and that's such a joy as an actor to shop and not be cut and quick and we're gonna move you know to just like let's go but at the same time I mean I'm let's talk about Laura and Reese doing what they do together because as much as she's saying Marilyn I bet you watch the high wire act of these two go at it and it's astounding I mean it's drama and comedy both of them like and you just go no and I've said it before and I'll say it again nobody does it like that in the business so [Applause] and with bit to talk about Merrill just so quickly because we should because she's so we just she shows up on time prepared in character she's got a cardigan on she's good things should she's quiet she stays over in the corner she steps on the set she does it she there is no drama there's no diva antics there's just an actor doing her work happy to have the job and going for it and it's astounding because if ever anyone could just under the set flounce under the set and flounce off never I know she is so delicate and how she does it I'll never forget the first day we were shooting cuz when I get nervous I start to ad-lib which is sort of my magic trick right so we all have our magic tricks as actors you know it's everybody has their thing right it's either memorization or character voices or accents and my magic trick is like I know how to ad-lib and I I know I know how to do it well well I got really nervous the first day that I was working with her and I was like well and we were in the real estate office and I was like well where are you gonna live mary-louise and I was like oh god I just said something and it wasn't the thing I was she was gonna say cut and she was like well I'm either gonna eat live on high she had memorized the highways she knew the map of the area she was like well I'll either live on the east end my your highway 37 or I'll be closer to the beach on Stenson and I was like it was fleein character it was a full ad-lib and she just came at me with like the best ab and I was just flat I had and I was like never in my life have I met an actor more prepared than that to be able to ad-lib about an area I was in could she had spent eight days in the area memorizing the roads and looking where mary-louise would really live and that would that would probably be probably going to look at apartments just her and the character wasn't written the way she ended up now you other thing I was curious about them yeah it was actually written probably sort of more almost glamorous and a little more and she showed up with the cross around her neck and the cardigan and the hair and I was just like wow yeah magic because the other way you it would have it would have worked but this way it was so believable and also kind of catches you off-guard well it's almost I think we've seen a lot of those sort of grand Dom you're not good enough for my son mother-in-law characters and seeing her that she was a little bit on the Marmee side it actually made Perry seem different because you think oh he he kind of grew up probably a regular kid and he created this elite sense of self later in life that comes out but I swear I'll always actually is very wealthy oh she's just very pious right and she's very the jazz element and they just she's very she just isn't flashy but she's sitting on was why she can go and hire the lawyers you know she'll go on I mean she everything said her fingertips so but she's not flashy which is a really really wonderful way to play her that was a wonderful invention on her part what is each of you most critical of when you watch yourself everything one thing is it something you do with your face or a mannerism or your boys or something that you everything I just always think I could have done it better yeah yeah everyone has said you killed it you nailed it you never can give yourself a moment of congratulations no I can but at the same time that it we're on a we're on a journey as actors we're on a journey trying to go as deep and as truthful as we can and sometimes and there's no result it's not like oh I know exactly how I want this to be it is all right so it's forming and it's gonna form in a particular way but I can always see all the other ways I could have done it so I you know that's just part of the it's it's almost like a labyrinth so and truly the joy is the process the joy is the work and it's so fun doing the what is I just say that now what I enjoy to be a storyteller and and a privilege but I I mean what a privilege I feel enormously lucky to be in this position to be working with this woman who's so incredibly supportive but I also think it's my job as an actor to lose my self-consciousness so I am NOT here to watch my work y'all are here to watch my work I that is my job is to not present self-consciousness to you I'm supposed to give you everything I'm supposed to give you my acne we heard adult acne my my undeveloped comedy my my awkward jokes where they don't land I'm here to show you I'm I am I'm supposed to give you the whole thing and that's what I give directors I give you the the full range and every option and and I really trust my directors that are gonna find that performance within all of it because I think there's too much self-consciousness on screen on tonight I never watched the monitor no you can't watch the monitors it's not for us you're gonna ask producers on this you didn't watch the monitor well you have to I mean this is a really when when we're producing there's a certain point where you go okay now I'm acting because the idea of just producing or just acting it's to get it there and then there'll be times when we were like my god we lost this location oh my gosh we lost this actor what are we going to do or we need this you know so there's but then there's the step on to the set and to be the actor I can't you in it and I think it's it's very important for the director to know that too because it's still got to be where the actors you're the director it's still very much is the director is the leader and you're following and they're shaping all of us and there's a lot of us so that's that's just a really important thing when you're pro dude I can't imagine obviously if you're acting directing that's a whole different thing so something like Bradley Cooper when he's acting and directing that's what a way but you know we do get to go delineate and go okay now now I'm gonna completely give over to the performance in the role right so as far as we know the story is over the last scene of them walking into the police station what do you think happens to these people after that moment we can't tell you because we don't know but we've talked about doing a season three because we love that much I was just gonna see if maybe you would bring it up okay I mean it starts with Liam Mariotti that really is and she seems game to consider it know this is this is the truth of it she's always had a follow up novel too big a little lies in her head is so she's always had it it just has a it has a different trajectory so we can't really say anything more if it was gonna come into fruition it would come because she would write the novel is probably where it would start write bigger littler lives movie doesn't follow her letters if you want it all right we're gonna find out her Twitter handle after this I would love to know in the years you've known each other as friends and now as collaborators what is something that you've learned about each other that you think would surprise people you know we have a sense of we think that we know you because you're in our lives but obviously I don't think we know you the way you know each other when you know everything about us both wake up in a pretty good mood we never don't come in in bad moods we're not that kind of person an optimist which yeah I love that that's great huh so who is in the worst mood when you'd go to set in the morning I'm just kidding was it Laura who was it Mary she has funny little snack she eats all day I make fun of her what are your smash I do cuz I she eats it blood sugar and so I have to eat ten meals a day yeah she's like her I'm six look here oh I was like what are you eating what are your latest reports hot cocoa on top of the cappuccino but only it's the foam that she eats like we're only male than the coffee she's weird old lady like hard candy he's got you can better sky candies you know that once your grandma had you know in the candy why I like them cuz of my grandma she does everybody want to bet scotch candy I'm like your hurdle ladies dad see I knew you had stuff I knew it had any of you ever heard that your race doesn't like anyone eating off her play I don't like anybody so I always go cuz of my kids I'm iliza oh can I try that oh no I had a brother who ate all my food so I'm like don't eat my food I feel like I know both of you so much better what is something that you would like to do together in the future now that you know that forever I would love to go anywhere we'd love to go on holiday not work just have fun with each other let's go for a hike yeah we like yeah what does yeah exactly and I think also we love I mean it's so great when you're working with someone who you can call up and go what do we do now and we're in it together and we I always say this it's like the team that we that we created on this is so strong you can just lean into it and you can really rely on it and we push through I know and I love that feel I do too and by the way I want to shout out our producing team because they were amazing and other your hair when Paris here they made it so amazing for us to be able to concentrate his actors they were like we got this but I want to say one thing I would love to do in the coal because the greatest one of the greatest privileges of my career was being able to sit in the hair and makeup chair with her and be like Nicole tell me about Stanley Kubrick and then I just get her undivided attention for 30 minutes and she would tell me stories that I was like Nicole tell me about Gus Hansen tell me about Baz Luhrmann yo this woman needs a podcast like I want to interview her no-holds-barred I just want to know like the history of your career Laura Dern's career Merrill's career I just want to hear I've always said this I just I want to do a deep dive just as a huge fan because you can start this podcast you are very powerful tour starting okay we're recording this is officially episode 1 but I just think there is an oral history that's needed of this extra history of a hitman career not just me everyone but we were saying you know I have some crazy stories the kid over the trailer one day I'll get her to tell the park has to be called in the trailer in the trailer another another thing to look forward to along with season 3 so we have to wrap now but he do want to say that I'm so honored to be on stage with you and this show is really just I was a little worried about season 2 only knowing how wonderful season 1 was and I thought oh is this beautiful gift why try to reopen it and and it's just stunning work just really important and I think everyone in this room would agree just one of the best pieces of art for a long time thank you for being here thank you all for coming we really appreciate it coming out really I remember them doing you vote for sag remember them okay good night thank you thank you [Music]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 13,570

Rating: 4.9649124 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Q&A, Interview, Big Little Lies, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Stacey Wilson Hunt

Id: n1yZgustkVQ

Length: 32min 24sec (1944 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019