Nicole Kidman recalls slapping Meryl Streep's glasses off her face on Big Little Lies set

Tyler Aquilina
·1 min read

Jennifer Clasen/HBO

Slapping Meryl Streep isn't something one does lightly.

Big Little Lies fans may recall the scene in season 2 where Celeste (Nicole Kidman) slaps her mother-in-law Mary Louise (Streep). As Kidman recalls, she was understandably a bit nervous about slapping the acting legend: "I didn't want to hurt her gorgeous, delicate face!" The Undoing star said on Friday's episode of The Tonight Show. "We were so into it, both of us, character-wise. So we were kind of circling each other at the time. She would sit in one corner, I'd sit in another."

"But when I came to do it — we did it a number of times — I knocked her glasses off by accident," Kidman continued. "I think that's the one they used, if I remember correctly. Her glasses sort of go askew." (Indeed, by the looks and sounds of the scene, Streep's glasses fully fell off and hit the floor.)

"But I never hit her face," she added. "I'm pretty good with that."

And there were no hard feelings: Kidman and Streep would later reunite for 2020's The Prom. "Meryl, on the first day of rehearsal, showed up and was ready to go," Kidman recalled of making the musical film. "She did the number, and I just broke into applause in the rehearsal room. The woman is insanely talented."

Kidman is currently in negotiations to play Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin's upcoming film Being the Ricardos, alongside Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. Streep, meanwhile, can also be seen in Steven Soderbergh's latest film Let Them All Talk on HBO Max.

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