Nicole Kidman has found herself in the midst of controversy. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kidman has sparked backlash after she skipped Hong Kong’s COVID-19 quarantine in order to film the series Expats. In response to the news that Kidman skipped Hong Kong’s COVID-19 quarantine protocols, social media users have shared their unfiltered thoughts about the entire situation.
A local news site, HK01, reported that Kidman took a private jet from Sydney, Australia, to Hong Kong on Aug. 12. When she arrived in Hong Kong, she did not have to adhere to the city’s seven-day hotel quarantine for those traveling from Australia. THR noted that on Friday, Hong Kong began to require vaccinated individuals from Australia to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days. This change comes as Australia has been deemed medium-risk amid the rise of the delta variant.
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As for why Kidman was not required to quarantine upon her arrival, Hong Kong’s Commerce and Economic Development Bureau confirmed that Kidman and others who will be working on Expats received an exemption to “carry out designated professional work.” The bureau confirmed the news to THR and noted that they had to speak out about the controversy amid “mounting public pressure.” THR reached out to Kidman’s representative, but they did not hear back by the time of the article’s publication.
On social media, people are speaking out about Kidman’s exemption from Hong Kong’s COVID-19 quarantine protocols. Their responses come as the actor has been spotted out and about and shopping in Hong Kong during the past week. One Twitter user wrote, “Dear #HongKong friends and family, While you are locked into a hotel room for three weeks, how does it feel to know that if you are from Hollywood, you are exempt from the barbaric quarantine rules HK residents are subjected to?” Another shared, “Olympic medalists are required to quarantine in HK but Nicole Kidman doesn’t because she is a Hollywood star and needs to film ‘EXPATS.’”
The project at the center of this controversy, Expats, originally received a straight-to-series order from Amazon in 2018. Expats is based on Jennifer Y.K. Lee’s book, The Expatriates, which follows a group of wealthy women living in Hong Kong as expatriates. In June 2018, Amazon signed a first-look film and television deal with Kidman, one of the streamer’s first pacts with talent.
