--- title: Emmys 2017: Big Little Lies Cast Urge More Roles for Women description: HBO’s Big Little Lies won the Outstanding Limited Series trophy at the 69th annual Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. canonical: https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-18T03:43:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:19.604Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Big Little Lies' Stars Champion Roles for Women at Emmys og:description: “It’s been an incredible year for women in television" og:url: https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4256fcee3583cf1a/6988de3497cdff1c026b27aa/2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Big Little Lies' Stars Champion Roles for Women at Emmys twitter:description: “It’s been an incredible year for women in television" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4256fcee3583cf1a/6988de3497cdff1c026b27aa/2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Big Little Lies_ Stars Make Plea for 'More Great Roles for Women' in Emmys Speech by [Shirley Li / EW](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Shirley Li / EW Sep 18, 2017 3:43 AM CUT  Nicole Kidman, center left, Reese Witherspoon, center right, and cast and crew accept the award for outstanding limited series for "Big Little Lies" at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 17, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Nicole Kidman, center left, Reese Witherspoon, center right, and cast and crew accept the award for outstanding limited series for "Big Little Lies" at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 17, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.Chris Pizzello—Invision/AP by [Shirley Li / EW](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Shirley Li / EW Sep 18, 2017 3:43 AM CUT Consider this achieving “[more](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3KTEJz%5FRgs "undefined")”: HBO’s _Big Little Lies_ won the Outstanding Limited Series trophy at the 69th annual Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. Producer and star Reese Witherspoon stepped up to the microphone first, thanking the Academy, cast, crew, and author Liane Moriarty for creating the characters. ‘Thank you to the people that embraced this,” fellow producer and star Nicole Kidman chimed in. “The power of television, it has astounded us. As much as the show had the entertainment value, it was about issues. We are so grateful you told your friends to watch the show; you can still watch it.” “It’s been an incredible year for women in television,” Witherspoon said. “Thank you for giving us these stories.” “This is a friendship that then created opportunities,” Kidman added. “It created opportunities out of our frustration because we weren’t getting offered great roles, so now, more great roles for women, please. Thank you.” The critically acclaimed seven-episode miniseries, based on Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel, followed a group of mothers embroiled in a murder mystery in the sunny coastal town of Monterey, California. Well, it was a lot more than that, too: Creator David E. Kelley, along with his star-studded, female-fronted cast — namely Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz — captured the dark comedy of wealthy family life in the adaptation, while also tackling tough commentary on the travails of motherhood, marriage, and muted ambition. It’s a whodunit full of nuance on women and power that unfolded in the most picturesque, escapist setting in America. And it’s no wonder talk of a second season began as soon as the stellar series aired. “Everybody’s game for getting the band back together, but we want to make sure that we’ve got the music to justify it,” [Kelley told EW](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/14/big-little-lies-season-2-david-e-kelley/ "undefined") of a potential follow-up. “That decision hasn’t been made yet, and it’ll be story-driven when it is.” The series nabbed 16 nominations at the Emmys, including ones for Dern and Woodley in the Supporting Actress category, Alexander Skarsgård for Supporting Actor, and Kidman and Witherspoon for Lead Actress. _Big Little Lies_ beat out fellow HBO nominee _The Night Of_, as well as National Geographic’s _Genius_, and FX’s _Fargo_ and _Feud: Bette and Joan_. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/awards/2017/09/17/big-little-lies-limited-emmy-win/ "undefined") _originally appeared on EW.com._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/"},"headline":"Big Little Lies Stars Make Plea for 'More Great Roles for Women' in Emmys Speech","datePublished":"2017-09-18T03:43:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:19.604Z","description":"“It’s been an incredible year for women in television,” Reese Witherspoon said","url":"https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/","keywords":["awards","Newsfeed","Reese Witherspoon","emmys","Nicole Kidman","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4256fcee3583cf1a/6988de3497cdff1c026b27aa/2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shirley Li / EW"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4256fcee3583cf1a/6988de3497cdff1c026b27aa/2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017-emmy-awards-big-little-lies","caption":"Nicole Kidman, center left, Reese Witherspoon, center right, and cast and crew accept the award for outstanding limited series for \"Big Little Lies\" at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 17, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.","creditText":"Chris Pizzello—Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/awards/","name":"awards"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4945732/emmys-2017-reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/","name":"Big Little Lies Stars Make Plea for 'More Great Roles for Women' in Emmys Speech"}}]}] ```