Nicole Kidman’s ‘The Perfect Couple’ has made a change to avoid confusion caused by ‘Big Little Lies’
Nicole Kidman’s latest project, The perfect couplefeatures several departures from the source material, including one influenced by one of her most popular roles.
In the Netflix series, Eve Hewson plays a character named Amelia. In Elin Hilderbrand’s novel, however, the character is called Celeste. During the show’s red carpet premiere in Hollywood on September 4, showrunner Jenna Lamia told The Hollywood Reporter The change came about because Kidman, 57, plays a character named Celeste in HBO’s Big little liesIt was one of several changes that 55-year-old Hilderbrand Lamia allowed.
“The development process took five years for various reasons, so it went through many different forms and was closer to the book early on,” says Lamia, who has worked as an author, among other things. Good girls And Unpleasant.told THR“And then this wonderful director Susanne Bier came along and her influence changed a lot of things, and when we had the cast in place, that changed a lot of things.”
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Some of the changes were as small as the name change. Lamia changed Celeste’s name to Amelia, “just to avoid any possible confusion, a very small reason.”
While fans of Hildebrand’s novel might be upset about the changes, author Lamia told her she could make any changes necessary to produce a great television series.
“I wanted them to make the best TV series possible, I wasn’t worried about how they changed the book,” she said THR“I told Jenna from the beginning that it wasn’t important to me. People can read the book later or before. It will be a different experience because it’s a little different. They can see how they changed it. And I just wanted it to be great television.”
Hildebrand was also involved in the casting process. During the series premiere, she told PEOPLE that Liev Schreiber was her favorite for the role of Kidman’s on-screen husband.
“I was a huge Robert Donovan fan, he’s one of my favorite actors. And I sent the showrunner my wish,” she told PEOPLE. “And she said, ‘I don’t know.’ And then a few weeks later, she said, ‘Elin, your wish might come true.’ And she didn’t say in terms of what, but I hoped that’s what she meant.”
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The perfect couple Kidman plays Greer, a novelist whose perfect plans for her son’s wedding are disrupted when a body turns up on the beach on the morning of the ceremony. Hewson’s Amelia is Greer’s future daughter-in-law. Billy Howle plays Greer’s son.
The main cast also includes Dakota Fanning, Meghann Fahy, Jack Reynor, Ishaan Khatter and Isabelle Adjani.
All six episodes of The perfect couple are now streaming on Netflix.