Dream Big
Nicole Kidman talks Big Little Lies: “It’s slightly magical”
What’s inside the June issue of Foxtel magazine?
Ahead of the highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s breakout hit Big Little Lies, we sat down with the all-star cast – led by Foxtel magazine’s cover star Nicole Kidman – as they reflect on the success of the little series with big ambition.
On a brisk morning in downtown New York, Kidman looks surprisingly animated, despite filming nights on upcoming HBO miniseries The Undoing, with Hugh Grant. Before rushing back to Nashville for her
daughter’s solo violin performance, Kidman insists on making time to talk about the show that has rewritten the rulebook for women on television. “We are the recipients of an enormous amount of opportunity in terms of being able to change the landscape with something like Big Little Lies, but at the time when we started four years ago, it was totally unusual,” Kidman tells us. “People thought it was just going to be a small drama about some mothers that have kids in kindergarten and they were like, ‘Well, that will find its way in its own little niche world, but it won’t break out into something that men want to watch.’ And then it did.”
Overwhelmed by the demand for more, the all-star cast, including Reese Witherspoon, agreed to a second season, with bestselling Australian author Liane Moriarty writing a sequel novella introducing a new character: Mary Louise Wright. She comes to Monterey to help her widowed daughter-in-law, Celeste (Kidman), take care of her young boys… but also to find out what really happened to her late son, Perry. “We didn’t know Mary Louise was Meryl’s real name, but Liane knew and she wrote it and then said, ‘I want Meryl Streep,’” Kidman recalls. “Reese [Witherspoon] and I said, ‘We can’t get you Meryl!’ but then I sent Meryl a text and, when she responded… Reese and I were literally screaming on the phone with each other!”
On the eve of his performance on Studio MAX – celebrating the release of his new album My Criminal Record on May 31 – legendary rocker Jimmy Barnes sat down with Foxtel magazine to discuss his most personal album to date. “It’s been nearly 10 years since the last studio rock record and over those years I’ve been re-finding where I fit as a human being and as a singer,” he tells us exclusively.
June is a mega month for elite horsepower on Foxtel, with three iconic, action-packed Formula 1 Grands Prix taking place on back-to-back weekends in Canada, France and Austria. Behind the scenes, it is a
supreme logistical test. Renault F1 Team sporting director Alan Permane talks Foxtel magazine through the planning that goes into the events.
Foxtel Magazine June Issue hits Australian subscriber homes this week,
-Brad