Nicole Kidman said her upcoming Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers was the most difficult project she’s ever completed.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Oscar winner said she worked under “an enormous amount of stress” to enforce COVID-19 safety measures, because the series was the first major Hollywood production to film in Australia during lockdown.
“There’s an enormous amount of stress being responsible for people’s safety and health,” said Kidman, 54. “We took that really seriously. There was testing, mask wearing and if someone had a sore throat – even if the test came back negative – we rescheduled, or we shut down. We couldn’t put anyone at risk. And we got through without one case, which is extraordinary,” she recalled.
Kidman admits no one realized “what we were taking on” when production started — which she says is why the series got off the ground.
“If we’d known how high the risk was in terms of the whole thing being shut down and being destroyed like that, I don’t think the financiers would have taken the risk,” she reflected. “We kind of played Russian roulette in that way.”
Kidman also opened up about living and working in a “bubble” when filming took place between August and December 2020.
“You basically create a bubble, you don’t go outside of it but you do have a very strong, safe place,” the Australian actress said.
Kidman also revealed that she and the whole cast wanted “to buy property in Byron Bay” because of their experience.
“It was one of those things where I think it was almost like being in a dream because we were separate from the rest of the world, working together, in that place for that long a time,” she revealed.
Nine Perfect Strangers premieres August 18 on Hulu.
(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
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