Meryl Streep — she’s just like us! OK, not exactly. But in at least one way, Streep has something major in common with plebes like us: a healthy obsession with Big Little Lies. She admitted as much on Friday at the Television Critics Association winter meeting, confessing she was totally hooked on the series prior to joining it as a star for the upcoming second season.
“I loved this show. I was addicted to it,” Streep gushed. “I thought it was an amazing exercise in what we know and don’t know about people — about family, about friends, about how we flirted with the mystery of things. I wanted to be in that world. The world they created was amazing.”
Of course, when Streep comes knocking, you answer. Joked David E. Kelley, who wrote both seasons of Big Little Lies, “We looked at Meryl’s demo reel.”
Streep naturally got a part, and an important one to boot. In the seven-episode second season, Streep will play Mary Louise Wright, the mother of now-deceased abuser Perry, who was married to Nicole Kidman’s Celeste. Liane Moriarty, who wrote the novel upon which the HBO series was based, created the character of Mary Louise.
Our last panel at #TCA19 is for #BLL2: @RWitherspoon, Nicole Kidman, David E. Kelley, @shailenewoodley, @LauraDern, @ZoeKravitz, & Meryl Streep take the stage. #BigLittleLiespic.twitter.com/o8Po0mJGtc
— HBO PR (@HBOPR) February 8, 2019
Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz and Shailene Woodley (the female leads of the show) have all since gushed about working with a legend like Streep. In fact, when asked during the TCA meeting who proved to be the best storyteller off camera, the co-stars didn’t miss a beat in responding, “Meryl!”
Always gracious, Streep modestly quipped, “What happens in Monterey stays in Monterey.”
This strong female camaraderie has been on full display since the first season of Big Little Lies aired, and the momentum remains strong coming into the second season — which now finally has a release month! Per HBO, the series will return in June.
While that is undeniably good news for fans, it’s tinged with uncertainty over the show’s future. Will there be a third season?
When asked this question, Kelley revealed to reporters at the TCA press tour, “No such plan now. It’s one and two, and we like our closure with season two, but that will probably be it.”
Then again, as executive producer Witherspoon pointed out, “That’s what [he] said last time.” And shortly after that, co-executive producer Kidman chimed in and seemed to imply that Big Little Lies and its so-called “Monterey Five” circle might not be done just yet.
“There’s no plan for it to end, specifically. 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,” said Kidman. “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.”
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