Why Big Little Lies Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman

Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman have said that a reason why Big Little Lies — a seven-part HBO drama based on the book by Liane Moriarty— appealed to them was because of the number of strong female roles.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Kidman, 49, said women’s stories “often get brushed off” and suggested that the dearth of strong female roles was symbolic of a larger issue in the entertainment industry.

“Our stories are relevant; people do want to hear them,” she told the paper. “But our stories often get brushed off. Seeing five women front a project is not common — and it shouldn’t be that way.”

And referring to some of the shocking bits of Moriarty’s novel that made the story appealing to her, Witherspoon, 40, added: “It really delved into a lot of issues that women are dealing with daily that we don’t often see on-screen in this way. And it’s not black and white. These aren’t women who are good or bad. We wanted to show the rainbow of the female experience, which I think is sort of absent in Hollywood in a lot of ways.”

[Los Angeles Times]