Meryl Streep Discloses Nicole Kidman Went Skinny-Dipping Ahead of Shooting for ‘Big Little Lies’

Meryl Streep shared a humorous tidbit about her former HBO co-star Nicole Kidman during an award presentation at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Gala in Los Angeles. Streep, 74, revealed that Kidman, 56, had a unique morning routine of skinny-dipping in the ocean before filming Big Little Lies, per US Weekly.

"Reese [Witherspoon] told me the very first night we were up in Monterey, before we started shooting she said, ‘You know what she does?’ I said, ‘No, Nicole?’" Continuing further she shared, "She goes, ‘Yeah, you know what she does? She goes out at 5, before dawn, and she goes skinny-dipping behind the hotel in the ocean.’ I looked at Nicole and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? The Pacific is like 48 degrees in March.’ Nicole said, ‘Yeah! I love it!'" Streep recalled at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Gala on Saturday, April 27. According to the Mamma Mia! star, Kidman's body of work, both within and beyond Hollywood, is truly remarkable.

"Your list of credits and roles and good deeds in the world would take a normal person three lifetimes to achieve. Your life and your resume challenge everything we know about how many hours there are in the day and how many places a woman can be at one time," Streep admitted. She confessed to feeling a twinge of envy towards Kidman but also expressed immense admiration for her. Streep had the opportunity to witness Kidman's acting prowess firsthand when she joined the cast of Big Little Lies for its second season, which aired in 2019.

"When an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown, she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being. But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she just loves it," Streep confessed. "And I think that’s the greatest attribute an actor can have — that blend of appetite and curiosity and recklessness. You have that, baby," she concluded as reported by Page Six. Following the inaugural season of the acclaimed HBO series, Streep became part of the stellar cast, joining Kidman, Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, and Laura Dern. In the show's second season, Streep portrayed Mary Louise White, Celeste's mother-in-law and the grieving parent of Perry, whose character was played by Alexander Skarsgård and was murdered in the first season. 

Streep revealed that she did not even go through the script before accepting the role. "[My agent] said, ‘There’s a part that they wrote with you in mind because they called her Mary Louise.’ … I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ He said, ‘Don’t you want to read it?’ I said, ‘No.’ It was the greatest thing on TV. It really was, that first season," she explained during a New York City panel discussion in 2019.