Nicole Kidman’s Surprising Set Routine in 'Big Little Lies' Had Even Meryl Streep Shocked

While some like to say that “celebrities are just like us,” it’s no wonder that Hollywood celebrities may have their quirks here and there. After all, they can get just about whatever they want at the drop of a hat. For Nicole Kidman, who was recently honored at the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Gala on April 27, there’s one unique thing she’s done to help her get ready for set.

“Reese [Witherspoon] told me the very first night we were up in Monterey before we started shooting [Big Little Lies], she said, ‘You know what she does?’” Meryl Streep said in her speech presenting Kidman with her award, per Us Weekly. “I said, ‘No, Nicole?’ She goes, ‘Yeah, you know what she does? She goes out at 5, before dawn, and she goes skinny-dipping behind the hotel in the ocean.’”

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Much like us, Streep was understandably shocked when she heard of the ritual. “I looked at Nicole and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? The Pacific is like 48 degrees in March,'” she recalled. “Nicole said, ‘Yeah! I love it!’”

Despite not trying out the ritual for herself, Streep’s awe of Kidman’s talent on set might’ve made her reconsider. “[Big Little Lies was] the time when I really came within breathing distance of the formidable gifts Nicole has, and her process and her seismic bank of emotion she’s got locked up inside there and her stamina and her drive to be an artist and her discipline,” Streep gushed of Kidman, who played Kidman’s mother-in-law in the show, per The Hollywood Reporter.

“When an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown, she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being,” Streep continued. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she just loves it. And I think that’s the greatest attribute an actor can have — that blend of appetite and curiosity and recklessness. You have that, baby.”

“You’re like a Mustang, a workhorse, and a champion racer all in one, but one whose spirit, they’ll never break. Never,” she told Kidman, who was joined by her husband Keith Urban and her daughter Sunday, 15, and Faith, 13. “The range of your work is stunning. Your list of credits and roles and good deeds in the world would take a normal person three lifetimes to achieve.”

“Your life and your resume challenge everything we know about how many hours there are in the day and how many places a woman can be at one time,” Streep added. “It’s hard not to envy Nicole, but it’s also impossible not to be in awe of her.”

Looks like Kidman has quite a fan in Streep, skinny-dipping and all!

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