Keith Urban ‘Disturbed’ by Wife Nicole Kidman’s Performance in ‘Big Little Lies’

Nicole Kidman received rave reviews for her performance in HBO’s 2017 miniseries Big Little Lies, but the actress revealed that her husband, Keith Urban, was a little “disturbed” by his wife’s work on the show.

On the show, Kidman played Celeste Wright, a woman who was being abused by her husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgård), and the scale of the abuse was difficult for all involved, including the actors and those watching.

Speaking to W magazine, Kidman said Urban was uncomfortable watching her withstand such violence on screen.

“When he watched Big Little Lies he was disturbed,” she said. “He says that when he hears me scream or cry from a certain place in my soul it’s almost like it goes straight into him and he has a visceral reaction immediately. Because his brain and his heart doesn’t discern between acting and real life. They’re the same sounds for him. It throws him.”

Kidman added that the show is also disturbing for her, admitting, “I get upset even when I go back into it.”

She also said that Urban was “hypnotized and shattered” by her film The Killing of a Sacred Deer, a 2017 psychological thriller Kidman starred in that sees a man threatened with an impossible choice.

Kidman won an Emmy for her work on Big Little Lies, and further discussed the moment when she kissed Skarsgård on the lips after he won an Emmy for the show himself.

“There were times on that set when it was intense. But he and I communicated,” she explained. “There had to be such safety and such honesty and such raw vulnerability there that we have a different connection.”

She continued, “So to be able to just give him a kiss, I mean, I’d kissed him many, many times on the set. Much more than that. So that was just my way of going, in the moment—we were both shocked and we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m so glad you won.’ Because I know what he put into that role.”

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com