30 MAY 2017
»Pike, approached Big Little Lies as the
kind of prestige series that deserved the
same degree of care and planning that
came with getting a feature film made.
First, she brought on board good
friend Nicole Kidman to co-produce
the series and also play one of the
three pivotal female roles. She also
asked for Nicole’s help in securing
the rights to Liane Moriarty’s book.
“I had coffee with Liane and said,
‘Let us option your book, please, and
I promise we’ll get it made,’”recalls
Nicole. “She said, ‘Only if you
and Reese play Celeste and
Madeline,’ and I said, ‘Deal.’”
Then Reese persuaded her
Wild director, Jean-Marc Vallée
(also known for Dallas Buyers
Club) to helm the first season of
episodes while signing up David
E. Kelley (Chicago Hope and
Ally McBeal) to write the scripts.
She then went about hiring top
actors to complete the casting:
Shailene Woodley, Alexander
Skarsgård, James Tupper, Laura
Dern and Zoë Kravitz.
Knowing the frustration that
comes with a dearth of intelligent
roles for women in Hollywood,
Reese saw Big Little Lies as a
golden opportunity to launch a
unique, female-centric series that
she hopes will spawn similar TV
projects “down the road”.
“I’ve had so many conversations
over the years with very talented
actress friends [and] I feel like
I constantly see women of
incredible talent playing wives
and girlfriends in thankless parts.
I just had enough... You can’t
imagine the level of exasperation
that comes with having to
compete for terrible parts in
terrible movies.
“For 25 years, I’ve been the
only woman on set. They call it
the Smurfette Syndrome. There’s 100
(male) smurfs around and only one
woman. Together with Nicole and
Laura [Dern], we nurtured each other’s
performances. It’s really a collective
performance for all of us.”
Big Little Lies sees Reese play
Madeline, whose upbeat, chatty
personality is not far from that of the
actress herself. Adam Scott plays her
husband Ed, and together they look
after Madeline’s teenage daughter
from a previous marriage, and their
precocious five-year-old. On the surface,
Madeline projects the confidence of
a wealthy, ambitious woman on the
cusp of middle age, but deep down
she suffers from some of the fears and
insecurities of her time as a single mum
after her first husband abandoned her.
“Madeline’s struggling with a lot ofthings, and she’s very open about her
struggles. She’s constantly searching
for happiness and as the series goes
on you’ll find out she’s wrestling with
some real ethical dilemmas and things
that she wishes she hadn’t done.
“I fixated on this idea that there’s
always someone within a group of
women who is ‘perfect’. She seems
to have everything organised and
together, and then you realise, ‘Oh!
She’s actually the most cracked of
everyone.’ I’m always wary of that
person who is afraid to show
vulnerability. Madeline only
shows it to her friends, and
then later you see how truly
conflicted she is.”
The series is very much the
product of Reese’s sense of drive
and ambition. Growing up in
an affluent family in Nashville,
Tennessee (her father was a top
ear, nose and throat surgeon,
her mother, a surgical nurse
and later nursing teacher),
Reese was impressed by her
parents’ accomplished lives
as well as their work ethic.
Her mother would come
to nickname her “Type A”
due to her occasionally
obsessive behaviour. “I
think I was born with it
because my mom
would keep telling
me how serious and
organised I was
even as a kid.
My mom was
my inspiration
because she was
very hard-working
and disciplined.
That’s why I never take
my career for granted
and I am very aware how
fortunate I am.”
Before her career took off
with Legally Blonde, Reese
had already fallen in love with
and married actor Ryan Phillippe.
She was only 22 when she gave
birth to their first child, Ava,
followed by son Deacon four
years later. She admits to having
“underestimated” how hard itTOP: Reese with her
children, Ava, Deacon and
Tennessee, and husband
Jim Toth. ABOVE: With first
husband Ryan Phillippe
(father of Ava and Deacon).
RIGHT: Reese and Ava – the
actress was only 22 when
her daughter was born.
OPPOSITE: Reese and Jim.