On Friday, Reese and her Big Little Lies co-stars and writer David E. Kelley attended the Winter TCA Press Tour HBO Panel, to preview the upcoming 2nd season of their show. They talked about what we can expect from the new season, including that there will no longer be the ‘Greek chorus’ of characters commentating on events, that the tone is more dramatic, and that the focus is on dealing with the ‘trauma’ of what happened at the end of season 1. David E. Kelley commented that there is “no such plan” for a season 3. We’ve compiled a whole batch of tweets from the panel which you can read below, along with a couple of articles. Reese wore a simple but elegant blue dress by Michael Kors for the event. Find lots of high quality photos in our Gallery!
• HBO Winter TCA Press Tour x58
Meryl Streep Says ‘Big Little Lies’ Domestic Abuse Storyline Fed a ‘Hunger’ in a ‘Ready Audience’
Meryl Streep, who is joining the cast of HBO’s “Big Little Lies” in its second season, attributes part of the show’s appeal to its honest examination of abuse through the storyline between Nicole Kidman’s character and her physically abusive husband, played in Season 1 by Alexander Skarsgard.
“This exploration of abuse and its provenance, where it comes from, how it continues, how people survive it, all those questions were in the air, and this piece fed something … a hunger,” Streep told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday. “A ready audience, I would say.”
Streep – who is taking on her first major TV role in more than 15 years — signed on to Season 2 last year as Kidman’s mother-in-law who comes to stay with her family following the death of her son.
“Dave really understood,” Streep said, referring to writer and executive producer David E. Kelley, calling his writing “real, honestly investigated.”
The role came about, basically, because she was such a fan of the series, which also stars Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz.
“I loved this show. I was addicted to it,” Streep said. “I think it was an amazing exercise of what we know and what we don’t know about people.”
“Big Little Lies” is set to return on HBO in June.
(The Wrap)
How ‘Big Little Lies’ scored a second season — and Meryl Streep, too
You have to be a really good TV show to lure an actor like Meryl Streep. HBO’s “Big Little Lies” was just that good, apparently.
“I loved this show. I was addicted to it,” Streep told the Television Critics Association Friday, promoting the second season of “Lies. “I just felt like I had something to give to this piece.”
Streep will give a lot to the critically acclaimed series, which she joins for Season 2, due in June. The series, based on Liane Moriarty’s book about a group of California mothers linked by secrets and trauma, was meant to be a seven-episode, one-time event when it debuted in 2017. But after several Emmys and “enormous demand” from the audience, the A-list cast – which includes Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz – signed up for a new season.
Creator David E. Kelley promises that everyone was on board for the plan for the second season, including Kidman and Witherspoon, who are also producers.
“Everybody (in the cast) can get jobs,” he joked. “We didn’t want to do this unless we had a fair shot of living up to the bar we all thought that we set in year one.”
The new season focuses on the tumult that takes place in Monterey, California, after a death at a school function that links the five women, who map a cover-up. It goes beyond the story laid out in Moriarty’s book, but the author contributed to the new season.
“We were lucky that Liane Moriarty wrote almost a novella for us to use as a template,” Witherspoon said. “That gave us a basis for which to go on for each character. And we all had unresolved issues.”
The new chapter brings a few changes. The “Greek chorus” of Monterey citizens is gone, and there’s a big change behind the camera: Andrea Arnold replaces Jean-Marc Vallee as the director for all seven episodes.
“It’s interesting having a woman,” Kidman said. “You talk about the male gaze and the female gaze; obviously this is the female gaze.”
Season 2 was unexpected, but the cast and Kelley played coy about a potential third season.
“There’s no plan for it,” Kidman said. “And this was a long shoot for us and it was an enormous amount of work and we’re just amazed that we can be here … Not to compare it to the first one because artistically … it is its own entity and hopefully it will be taken in that way. And it was definitely made with an enormous amount of love.”
(USA Today)
‘Big Little Lies’ Will Likely End With Season 2
Is the Big Little Lies team open to more seasons?
Based on Liane Moriarty’s novel, the HBO hit was initially billed as a limited series when it debuted in 2017, but following its massive mainstream success and impressive awards haul, it came as no surprise when it was picked up for a second season.
When asked if there were plans to continue the story beyond the forthcoming sophomore installment, which kicks off in June, creator and executive producer David E. Kelley suggested Big Little Lies will more than likely end after a two-season run. Meryl Streep joins the upcoming season as Mary Louise, mother to Alexander Skarsgard’s Perry, who died at the end of season one.
“No such plan now,” Kelley told reporters Friday at the Television Critics Association press tour. “It’s one and two, and we like our closure with season two, but that will probably be it.”
If Kelley’s remarks sound vaguely familiar, it’s because he held a similar sentiment back in January 2017, before Big Little Lies was preparing to launch.
“You sat here [years ago] and said that,” executive producer and star Reese Witherspoon called out, prompting laughs.
Soon after, executive producer and star Nicole Kidman seemed to hint that there was no endgame in place and decisions surrounding the future of the show were fluid.
“There’s no plan for it to end, specifically,” Kidman said. “This was a long shoot for us, and it was an enormous amount of work, and we’re just amazed that we can be here. Not to compare it to the first one because artistically it’s a wonderful thing to take something and go and the success of the first one was so massive, so we go, ‘OK, let’s jump off the cliff.’ But at the same time, it is its own entity and hopefully it will be taken that way. It was definitely made with an enormous amount of love.”
Big Little Lies returns in June.
(ET Online
The Morning Show (2019)
