A New Cast Joins Nicole Kidman in 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Four years after the first season of Nine Perfect Strangers aired on Hulu — based on the 2018 novel by Liane Moriarty — the drama series is back and will debut its second season on Wednesday, May 21.Nicole Kidman returns as Masha Dmitrichenko — the Russian founder of a wellness resort — who invites nine new strangers on a wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps, where she uses psychedelic therapy to "heal" them."I love playing this character because she's so powerful," said Nicole Kidman at the premiere party held at the Beverly Estate on May 15. "A lot of the characters that I play are in precarious emotional places, and Masha is power. That's what's so appealing. And also getting to be the puppeteer of this whole group."
Among the group, Murray Bartlett of The White Lotus fame plays one of Masha's new clients. "This is an extraordinary group of people ... and they're amazing characters," Bartlett said. "The character that I get to play is just so rich — I got to be a puppeteer for the first time in my life, with voices. Just the character description alone: a kid's TV show host who's been canceled, who has deep-rooted anger issues and has a puppet. And then he takes psychedelics — so you can imagine what ensues. So it was an actor's dream, really."
Maisie Richardson-Sellers (Netflix's The Kissing Booth) plays someone who tricks her girlfriend into going on a wellness retreat. "But I actually did a little bit of puppeteering as well," she said. "There was one scene when I fully donned the green suit and committed, and I was Murray's scene partner as the puppeteer in the final moment.""Maisie was extraordinary, because I have some quite emotional scenes with the puppet," said Bartlett. "And I didn't want to do it with an inanimate object. So Maisie very generously agreed to step in — was an amazing puppeteer, put me to shame. And we did these scenes together and it was a beautiful experience."
"I was crying inside the green suit!" Richardson-Sellers added. "Like, it was really emotional! It was beautiful."Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) and Mark Strong (Kingsman) have a great chemistry as a father and son. "I would love to be able to say that we locked ourselves in a room and did mushrooms and got into our underwear and then sang and sort of roosted to the moon—""We did do that," Strong interjected.
"I gave it away! But when you're in a group like this and filming on a location, it's kind of like a big summer camp. So when Mark joined us, we'd been filming two or three weeks. And we all had dinner together, and everybody just hit it off — immediately from the start. And I think that's a testament to the people that were chosen to play these parts, and led by Nicole of course. So we got along. We didn't really need any bonding, did we?""No, it was easy. We get on," Strong said. "And I'm obviously way too young to play his father! It was a massive mistake in the casting. But we all get on."Annie Murphy (Schitt's Creek) and Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) play a mother-daughter duo. "It was fucking terrible!" Murphy said. "We haven't spoken since!" "We still haven't resolved it," Baranski said.
"We got to be real assholes to each other, which was wonderful, and then go have a glass of wine at the end of the day, which was also wonderful," Murphy added. "I loved every minute.""It was a dream," Baranski followed. "This is as good a group of actors as I've ever worked with — and in those gorgeous locations, and with Nicole in the lead. It was a life experience, and we were in Europe together, and I just thought that was an extraordinary thing to spend six months in Germany and the Austrian Alps, and we're learning so much culturally. So, I came away feeling like it was a paid vacation."Singer-songwriter King Princess makes her acting debut. "I feel like I got a crash-course in acting from this wonderful cast," she said. "There were moments when I looked directly into the camera and everyone was like, 'Stop doing that! It's not a music video!' she joked.
Lena Olin and Lucas Englander played an important role in the operation of Zauberwald, the new wellness facility. Did they have personal experience with unconventional wellness?"I think I'm pretty good at staying well myself, but I'm trying every day to be close to my soul and my spirit and who I am, and I think that's a very important step toward wellness," Olin said. "But this center that my character has created — and it was so fun to be in my character's castle. So I felt like, 'welcome everyone.' So it was really helpful to be in this gorgeous, incredible castle and to have these people come and stay with us.""Has anybody ever done ecstatic dance?" Englander asked the crowd. "I'm thinking maybe we can do some ecstatic dance later — that's the highest unconventional [thing I've done]. What about you Nicole, do you want to lead?" he asked."No!" Kidman said.
"I'll never forget our ecstatic dancing on set," said Filipina actress Dolly de Leon. "It's a core memory for me, this series. It's my first-ever series out of my country, so it's really special.""I have the same feelings," said Turkish actor Aras Aydın, who assumes his first role in an American series. "I was so nervous and so excited. And I still feel like [my character] Matteo — not out of character. I'm still broken! I learned a lot from these beautiful women and men."After the presentation, guests at the historic estate mingled over passed bites, drinks and a table filled with a trippy display of mushroom dishes. Then, a speakeasy-slash-nightclub opened up downstairs, where the party continued on in a room filled with marionettes (even live ones).