Nicole Kidman couldn't shake off her 'Expats' character: 'It became a part of who I was'

NEW YORK – Eight thousand miles from home, Nicole Kidman found her most personal role yet.

In Prime Video series “Expats” (first two episodes now streaming), the Oscar winner plays a New York landscape architect named Margaret, whose husband (Brian Tee) lands a job in Hong Kong and moves their family overseas. Feeling adrift in a new city, Margaret’s resentment turns to anguish when their young son Gus (Connor J. Gillman) goes missing at a crowded market while in the care of a new babysitter, Mercy (Ji-young Yoo).

"Expats" started production in summer 2021 and lasted more than 500 days. The project was at times painful for Kidman, 56, who lives in Nashville with her country singer husband, Keith Urban, and their two daughters, Sunday (15) and Faith (13). Due to Hong Kong’s tight COVID restrictions, she was not allowed to bring her family or travel to visit them while filming. And because of the distressing subject matter, she’d occasionally need to pause mid-scene when certain moments became too overwhelming.

“You’re doing it sometimes and it’s just a flood of emotion,” Kidman says, sitting at a SoHo hotel hours before the "Expats" premiere. “Because it took so long to make (the series), it became a part of who I was. It was strange, because it was always there. There was no closure, even for so many years that we were working on the show.”

Lulu Wang's 'Expats' is 'compassionate' with 'a dark undercurrent'

The six-episode “Expats” is directed by Lulu Wang (2019's “The Farewell") and adapted from Janice Y.K. Lee’s 2016 novel “The Expatriates.” The drama tracks the aftermath of Gus’ disappearance, as Margaret desperately looks for answers and struggles to raise her other kids. As time marches on and hopes fade for Gus' return, the family mulls the possibility of a fresh start back in the United States.

The series is a spiritual companion of sorts to Kidman’s 2010 film “Rabbit Hole,” in which her character befriends the teen who accidentally killed her son. But unlike that movie, Margaret is unsure whether she’ll ever find closure about Gus.

“It’s this deep grief that’s carried around, mixed with this desire to stay hopeful as a mother,” Kidman says. “That’s how the whole performance was constructed: ‘I know he’s alive and I’m not going to give up.’ It’ll never be over for Margaret, even if her husband and children are like, ‘OK, we have to leave.’ I love how we’re all so different as human beings and in the ways we cope with things.”

The show grapples with themes of forgiveness, and whether it's possible for the people who cause tragedies to move on. In adapting the book, Wang was intrigued by the “perpetrator versus victim dynamic: Who deserves our empathy?” she explains. “I thought, ‘There’s something that has this dark undercurrent, but it’s actually quite beautiful and compassionate.’” She was also keen to center the people of Hong Kong, “not only the domestic workers, but some of the locals, too. I wanted to break out of the bubble of the expats and look at the world around them.”

“Expats” is a true ensemble show: The 90-minute fifth episode focuses on Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla) and Essie (Ruby Ruiz), Filipino women employed by the wealthy main characters. "I wanted it to work as a standalone that people could watch having not seen any of the other episodes," Wang says.

Throughout the series, ample screen time is given to Mercy, who's riddled with guilt over a split-second mistake that led to losing Gus. There's also Margaret’s friend, Hilary (Sarayu Blue), who faces pressure from her mom and husband to have kids against her wishes.

"You watch Hilary searching for support on the possibility, like, 'Guess what? You don't have to, and that's OK,'" Blue says. "As someone who's child-free, that really resonated with me."

Nicole Kidman on the 'trickiest' part of being an actor-producer

Kidman calls “Expats” a “slow burn,” with a deeply cathartic emotional payoff reminiscent of Wang’s semi-autobiographical “Farewell," about a Chinese family saying goodbye to their matriarch. The show has given Wang “a lot more confidence," the filmmaker says. “As long as you have a vision, it doesn’t matter how big the machine is around you.”

The series was also a learning experience for Kidman, who founded production company Blossom Films in 2010 and has become a creative force behind the camera, producing and starring in HBO hits “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing,” along with Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers.” Making “Expats,” the actress felt more at ease than ever juggling her respective duties.

“I remember having this conversation with Lulu where I was like, ‘I cannot be dealing with you as a producer right now, because that won’t bode well for the performance. I need you to boss me around,’” Kidman says with a laugh. “That’s probably the trickiest thing when you’re an actor-producer. Yet I have such a wealth of experience now. I’ve been on a set since I was 14, so there’s a feeling with the camera that is probably one of the safest places for me. It’s really weird.”