Nicole Kidman stayed in character & went ‘bats**t’ crazy during the Nine Perfect Strangers shoot

Nicole Kidman was “bats*** crazy” and refused to answer to her own name while filming Nine Perfect Strangers.

The 54-year-old actress plays wellness resort director Masha in the upcoming limited series and insisted on staying in character for the five months she was filming the drama in a bid to not make it seem she was “doing a performance”.

Joking she was “bats*** crazy” – a line her character uses in the series – she explained during a TCA panel: “I’d only respond as Masha. I wanted a very calm healing energy to emanate all the time so I remember going over to people and sort of putting my hand on their heart, holding their hand, they would talk to me or use my name Nicole when I would completely ignore them.

“The only way I could actually relate to people was that way because I felt like otherwise I would be doing a performance and I didn’t want to feel that way.”

The show follows nine stressed city dwellers looking for a better way of living at a health-and-wellness resort but Nicole admitted there’s no easy way to categorise the programe, which is based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name.

She said: “When people say define what it is, we still can’t, I mean I dare you to ask any of us, what genre this is, we have no idea.”

The ‘Big Little Lies’ star was also asked about making the move into television with a major movie career behind her but she explained how the series she’s worked on have only had one director for the whole project so it doesn’t feel much different.

She said: “I see it as an extension of film it’s just a longer version.

“I haven’t actually done a show where you have different directors coming in and doing different episodes so for me it’s more like that extended cinematic storytelling.

“At the same time, I started off in Australia, doing mini-series which is the equivalent of limited series… so I’ve always embraced it. I just think now it’s such a fantastic landscape because you have these writers and directors who are willing to work in this in this territory.”