‘Big Little Lies’: Meryl Streep Joins Season 2 Cast Of HBO Series
Photo: Brigette LaComb An all-star cast has just gotten starrier. Meryl Streep, the most Oscar-nomi..
Photo: Brigette LaComb
An all-star cast has just gotten starrier. Meryl Streep, the most Oscar-nominated actress in history, is joining the second installment of HBO’s Emmy-winning limited series Big Little Lies.
Streep will play Mary Louise Wright, the mother of Perry (played by Alexander Skarsgard in Season 1). Concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren following her son Perry’s death, Mary Louise arrives in Monterey searching for answers.
This is the first new cast addition since the long-rumored second installment was officially greenlighted with a seven-episode order.
Season 1 stars/executive producers Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will return in their roles, respectively, as Celeste and Madeline, as well as writer David E. Kelley who again is penning all seven scripts partially based on a story by Liane Moriarty, author of the Big Little Lies book that the original mini was based on.
Deals are currently being finalized for most of the original cast to return, including Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern. American Honey helmer Andrea Arnold is set to direct all seven episodes, stepping in for Emmy-winning Season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallée, who will remain an executive producer.
Per HBO, the subversive, darkly comedic drama Big Little Lies will explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode…the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom.
The role marks Streep’s return to HBO follow her Emmy-winning performance in miniseries Angels in America in 2003. She briefly returned to TV from 2010-2012 as Camilla Bowner in Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy comedy series on Showtime. Streep received her first Emmy for Holocaust.
Streep’s addition makes for a BLL Season 2 cast that features three Oscar winners as she joins Kidman and Witherspoon.
Three-time Oscar winner Streep just broke her own Oscar nom record with her 21st nomination for her role as Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in The Post. Her litany of film credits include her Oscar-nommed role as the titular character in 2016’s Florence Foster Jenkins, along with Ricki and the Flash, Into The Woods, Julie and Julia, August Osage County, and Mamma Mia!, among many more. She received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter. Streep is repped by CAA.
