How do you top a first season that received universal praise, impressive viewership numerous and multiple awards for its creativity in highlighting? For HBO and the producers of the acclaimed drama series "Big Little Lies" the answer was crystal clear – Meryl Streep.
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Arguably the best actress of our lifetime, Streep's accolades include a record 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three for "Kramer vs. Kramer", "Sophie's Choice" and "The Iron Lady", eight Golden Globe Awards and the Honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award, plus during his term President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal of Arts, and in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On the small screen she gained attention for such mini-series performances in "Holocaust" and "Angels in America", for both she has won Emmys, therefore joining the hit HBO drama wasn't that much of a stretch naturally.
"I loved this show, I was addicted to it", proclaimed the celebrated actress at the Television Critics Association winter tour panel, "I thought it was an amazing exercise in what we know and what we don't know about people; about family, about friends, how it flirted with the mystery of things. What was unsaid, unshown, unknown was sort of the pull, the gravitational pull of the piece. And it was so exciting. So, when I got the chance to join the crew, I thought, yeah! I wanted to do it, to be in that world. The world that was created was amazing".
Streep joined leading ladies Nicole Kidman, who won the Emmy for her role in the first season that aired in early 2017, and Reese Witherspoon, who both also serve as executive producers on the series, as the main ensemble is rounded out by Emmy winner Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley and Zoe Kravitz.
Set in the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California, everything seems the same for the ladies who comprise the "Monterey Five" – Madeline (Witherspoon), Celeste (Kidman), Jane (Woodley), Renata (Dern) and Bonnie (Kravitz). But the night of the school fundraiser and repercussions of the tragic and accidental death of Celeste's abusive husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), left the community reeling as the women bond together to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
The new season explores the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode... and the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom.
Streep's character Mary Louise Wright, Perry's grieving mother, arrives in town to help her daughter in law Celeste, but feels in the dark as to what exactly happened that led to her son's untimely demise.
"I love it, that's the only thing I'll tell you about my character", teases Streep in the panel promoting the second season which she has signed on before even seeing the script, "It was the greatest thing on television, it really was. There isn't a woman who wouldn't sign up. There's a strong female point of view, but I think the labels are less helpful than what we're trying to get to, which is a communication, direct, between human beings. We're all in the boat together and you got to make it work".
Q: Do you see a change in how female performances on screen are reviewed?
"Well, for most of my life, all the critics were male, with a very few women. In films, certainly, the important critics were male often. And, the preponderance of the taste then, of what people chose to review, what they chose to look at, that drove the generative part of what things were made, what things were green lit. So, it was sort of like a little, horrible circle for a long time. Now, with women's voices more included – not anywhere near what they should be – the whole Rotten Tomatoes controversy – people are understanding that this drives the market, actually. And, it drives what's available. Now, television sort of has always been a women's medium, because at first it was trying to sell women things. They were at home watching commercials, and so television was interested in what women wanted. Films were not. And now, it's kind of nicely integrated and on its way to being more responsive to half the sky".
Q: Is there a bad review you remember?
"My worst review came from a female critic. But she was playing a boy's game, which was a very familiar thing that women used to have to do, to talk tough and to play, hardball and all those metaphors, for earning your bona fides that way".
Q: Do you feel that over your career film and tv help move the conversation forward?
"When I think back to the nineteenth century when I began (smiles) you do see certain things having an influence. Somebody told me that...I was in this thing called "Holocaust" really a long time ago, and it was not very critically well-received. And yet along with "Roots," which appeared about the same time, it really precipitated a conversation, certainly in Germany. Someone has made a documentary about the fact that this was the first – seeing the "Holocaust" was the first time German audiences, young people, had been exposed to the enormity of that time, and looking back at their fathers, their grandfathers.
"And really it created a seismic shift. I'm not just saying this. It culturally had a great effect. 'Roots' had a great effect. But I sort of am not sure what comes first, the chicken or the egg. I'm not sure if a piece doesn't meet its moment because there's an incipient awareness, or a readiness or the nerve endings are open to explore these issues. That, I'm not sure of. This exploration of abuse and its provenance, where it comes from, why it continues, how people survive it, all those questions were in the air and this sort of – this piece fed something that was a hunger, that was a ready audience".
