Nicole Kidman leads “9 perfect strangers” on a considerable trip | Entertainment – Pennsylvanianewstoday.com

Launched today, the Hulu exclusive series is undoubtedly ambitious, centered around nine troubled people attending a wellness retreat in far-flung Northern California. Kidman plays Masha, the mysterious guru of the spa, who has unusual remedies, including psychedelics.

Strangers include an unfortunate romance writer, a former soccer star, a boring couple, an angry divorce, a mysterious gay man, and a family lamenting the loss of a fourth. Their 10-day retreat is told in eight episodes, like an adult “breakfast club” and a mashed potato-style Agatha Christie-style parlor mystery.

This series was adopted by Liane Moriarty’s 2018 novel of the same name, David E. Kelly and John Henry Butterworth. The cast of the show is impressive, with Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall, Samara Weaving and Michael Shannon appearing in the ensemble.

“I loved the fact that there were so many characters and I felt they were really three-dimensional,” said McCarthy, who plays the novelist. “They are complicated and people are messy. And I thought it was real people. No one knows the perfect person. I don’t know how to play the perfect person.”

Some of the issues the series deals with are addiction, the distorted effects of social media, emotional repression, impostor syndrome, and the complex nuances of mourning. Nine visitors, and spa staff, including Masha, have been hurt in some way.

“What do you do to get rid of the pain? How far do you go?” Kidman asks. “These questions are very interesting to me, especially if they are written in an interesting format.”

Former soccer star Cannabert read the script shortly after finishing Michael Pollan’s 2018 book How to Change Your Mind, which explores the potential of psychedelic treatment. The actor jumped at the chance to show another way to treat depression.

“We’ve been treating people the same for years, and we’ve ignored this alternative way of dealing with it,” he says. “Maybe those who haven’t heard this say,’Is that true?’ And they dive a bit on their cell phones and go,’Oh, my god, it’s real.’ ..

McCarthy and Hall, who play the oppressed divorce, valued the messiness of life and were fascinated by the show’s message of piercing people’s over-processed, manufactured, and edited portraits on social media.

“If you recognize someone else’s flaws, you can see your flaws and that flaws can be beautiful,” says Hall. “As soon as you can see the beauty of someone’s flaws, you don’t have to look so badly about your beauty.”

The series arrives at a time when the pandemic blockade makes depression and isolation a cultural issue, and the Olympics bring mental health to the fore and talk about mental health.

“I think the last year and a half has given us a great opportunity to reflect, and we were able to sit down with what we are actually doing,” Hall says. “In the meantime, people can say,’To be honest, it’s okay.’ It doesn’t have to be okay. Not only is it okay if it’s not okay, it’s okay to say I’m not okay. “

The show takes place in remote California, but was actually filmed in Byron Bay, a coastal town in southeastern Australia. This “magic bubble without COVID,” McCarthy said.

The Australians took the safety of COVID-19 very seriously and took the cast and his loved ones to a hotel room in the army and quarantined them with outside guards for 15 days. The mask and test continued as a set.

“They weren’t joking. Their protocol was intense,” said McCarthy, who traveled with her family. “No one cleans your room. No one changed your sheets. You were just there and introspective. Strangely, we have a lot I colored it. “