--- title: Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman Discuss Little Big Lies description: Find out why HBO's upcoming show, Big Little Lies, appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. canonical: https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-17T18:44:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:52.057Z og:title: Why Big Little Lies Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman og:description: 'These aren’t women who are good or bad’ og:url: https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18647a675ebdae52/6988bae297cdff731c6af86c/nicole-kidman-reese.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4009 og:image:height: 2255 og:image:alt: HBO's "Big Little Lies" Premiere and After Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Big Little Lies Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman twitter:description: 'These aren’t women who are good or bad’ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18647a675ebdae52/6988bae297cdff731c6af86c/nicole-kidman-reese.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why _Big Little Lies_ Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Feb 17, 2017 6:44 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Actors Nicole Kidman, Sarah Baker and Reese Witherspoon attend the premiere of HBO's 'Big Little Lies' at the TCL Chinese Theater on February 7, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 07: (L-R) Actors Nicole Kidman, Sarah Baker and Reese Witherspoon attend the premiere of HBO's 'Big Little Lies' at the TCL Chinese Theater on February 7, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic) Jeff Kravitz—FilmMagic by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Feb 17, 2017 6:44 PM UTC [Reese Witherspoon](http://motto.time.com/4556672/reese-witherspoon-instyle-working-mom/) and [Nicole Kidman](http://motto.time.com/4584582/2017-pirelli-calendar-peter-lindbergh/) have said that a reason why [_Big Little_](http://time.com/3607315/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/)[ _Lies_](http://time.com/3607315/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-big-little-lies/)_—_a seven-part HBO drama based on the [book](https://www.amazon.com/Big-Little-Lies-Liane-Moriarty-ebook/dp/B00HDMMISA/ref=asap%5Fbc?ie=UTF8) by Liane Moriarty_—_ appealed to them was because of the number of strong female roles. Speaking to the [Los Angeles _Times_](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-big-little-lies-feature-20170216-story.html), 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.” \[[L](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-big-little-lies-feature-20170216-story.html)[os Angeles](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-big-little-lies-feature-20170216-story.html)[ _Times_](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-big-little-lies-feature-20170216-story.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/"},"headline":"Why Big Little Lies Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman","datePublished":"2017-02-17T18:44:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:52.057Z","description":"'These aren’t women who are good or bad’","url":"https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/","keywords":["motto","movies","celebrities","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18647a675ebdae52/6988bae297cdff731c6af86c/nicole-kidman-reese.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18647a675ebdae52/6988bae297cdff731c6af86c/nicole-kidman-reese.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HBO's \"Big Little Lies\" Premiere and After Party","caption":"HBO's \"Big Little Lies\" Premiere and After Party","creditText":"Jeff Kravitz—FilmMagic","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":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4674706/reese-witherspoon-nicole-kidman-little-big-lies/","name":"Why Big Little Lies Appealed to Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman"}}]}] ```