The Big Picture

Nicole Kidman and Sarayu Blue star in
Expats.
The show follows three women connected by a tragedy in Hong Kong.
Blue discusses how trauma impacts her character’s feelings about motherhood and shooting that intense elevator scene.
Kidman reveals why her character is so against religion and overcoming obstacles to “create something magical” with Blue and Lulu Wang.

In addition to being a bona fide movie star, Nicole Kidman is also one of the queens of TV right now, producing and starring in everything from Big Little Lies to Nine Perfect Strangers. She adds to her impressive resume with Expats, based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee. In it, Kidman plays Margaret Woo, a woman living in Hong Kong with her family whose life is turned upside-down when her youngest son, Gus (Connor James), tragically disappears. Margaret must grapple with complex feelings of grief, guilt, anger, and hope while navigating complicated interpersonal relationships, including with her husband (Brian Tee), the woman who was supposed to be watching Gus (Ji-young Yoo), and her best friend, Hilary (Sarayu Blue).

Hilary has more than her fair share of drama, too. Her biological clock is ticking, and she still hasn’t decided whether motherhood is for her, while her husband, David (Jack Huston), is eager for fatherhood — and eager to have affairs behind Hilary’s back. She also faces pressure from her own overbearing mother (Sudha Bhuchar), who is pressuring Hilary to keep painful family secrets. Blue has been a criminally underrated talent for years, and her stunning performance in Expats may be her best yet.

Collider got the chance to speak with Kidman and Blue about their characters’ unique and refreshing attitudes towards motherhood and religion, the most challenging scenes to film, and the other Expats characters they’d love to play if given the chance.

Expats A look at the personal and professional lives of a tight-knit group of expatriates living in Hong Kong.Release Date January 26, 2024 Creator Lulu Wang

Sarayu Blue Discusses How Hilary’s Trauma Informs Her Feelings on Motherhood
Image via Prime Video

COLLIDER: Sarayu, I want to start with you because I feel like Hilary’s attitude toward motherhood is so interesting and so honest, and I feel like the fact that we get to meet both of Hilary’s parents adds a whole other layer to her feelings and her hesitations. I’m curious how you think her trauma of witnessing her father’s abuse and having to take care of her mother when she was still a child affects her attitude toward becoming a mother herself.

SARAYU BLUE: First of all, thank you — that’s so meaningful. I think that it’s impossible for trauma not to inform how we move forward in life, and I think it affects Hilary. I think there’s a deep-down, very real effect from such an experience, and what I love so much is that Sudha Bhuchar, who plays [my mother] Brinder, and Kavi Raz, who plays my father [Daleep] in the show, brought such a wholeness to these people and such a full human being, which really helps inform my way of operating in those moments because they’re really painful storylines. They’re deep storylines. And that’s not to say that I think Hilary didn’t want to be a mother because of how she was raised or what she experienced, but I can’t help but wonder if it was part of it, you know? I think that it has to have been a part of it.

What I love about Hilary is really watching her grapple with whether she wants to be a mom or not. I think that grappling is such a beautiful in-between limbo state that we so rarely see fleshed out. I love how you watch her ask Margaret, you watch her ask David, you watch her ask her mother, “How do I know? How do I know? How do I know? So, I don’t think that she is clear, like, “Oh, I definitely don’t want kids because of trauma in my upbringing.” I think it’s really this growing up and growing through life and asking herself, “Is this what I want?” And I wish that on everyone for every decision, and I wish it particularly for women — that we are allowed to say, “Is this what I want?” Because so often, we just override. That’s what society wants us to do — just override. And instead, we get to watch Hilary genuinely say, “But I don’t know.”

Nicole Kidman Reveals Why Margaret Is So Against Religion
Image via Prime Video

That’s so powerful and something that we don’t get to explore a lot. I feel like something really interesting about Margaret’s character is her very adverse reaction to religion because that’s also something I don’t see explored a lot. I’m curious where you think that stems from for her — that attitude about not wanting to let that enter her life at all.

NICOLE KIDMAN: I was talking about it with Alice Bell, who was initially developing the show with me, and then Lulu [Wang] once she came on board and became the showrunner. Lulu and Alice would construct these things, and I asked Alice to write why she has such an adverse reaction to it. And it’s because she grew up in a family where she was sent to a Catholic school, and her family was not religious, but at the school, suddenly her sister became very religious. Margaret didn’t connect with it, but suddenly, she was having to go to mass at times and pretend. She saw her family pretending to be something, and she decided, “This is never for me.”

And when she and Clarke married, they were both in agreement that they were not religious. Therefore, when she finds out that he’s been going to church and that’s where he’s looking for solace, it’s a betrayal of such a deep commitment that they made to each other. It had stemmed from a childhood desire not to be controlled in a way. So that was sort of the backstory that Alice and Lulu gave me, and so she just challenges it and challenges it, and it’s not where she goes to look for solace or comfort. She won’t — she refuses it. So when her husband is doing it, that’s very threatening to her as well.

Nicole Kidman and Sarayu Blue Talk the Most Challenging Scenes to Film
Image via Prime Video

The fifth episode feels like its own feature film, but in the same way, I feel like the scene where Hilary is stuck in the elevator almost feels like its own short film or even a one-act play.

KIDMAN: [Laughs] That was so good. I love it.

It’s such a good scene! Sarayu, I’m so curious about what it was like to shoot that because it was so powerful in so many ways.

BLUE: It was really intense and wonderful. I’m a theater actor, so it felt like getting to do a play, particularly because so rarely do we shoot chronologically in film and television. That’s a rare experience, but because it’s this bottle episode and so much of the episode is in the elevator, we got to shoot that in order, and it really helped build that tension of being here since there’s no way out. It builds the horrific tension of a mother-daughter relationship that is so fraught, and it comes to this boiling point because where else is it gonna go? You can’t get out of this room.

I’m actually claustrophobic, by the way. It’s a little fun fact that it was incredibly nerve-wracking to film these. However, I have to say, there’s also the wonderful filming trick that a wall is down. So if you’re ever going to be stuck in a pretend elevator, it’s a great way to do it. [Laughs] And our AD was so kind — he always made sure, as soon as we cut, he’d be like, “Open the door! Open the door!”

KIDMAN: [Laughs] Or she faints!

BLUE: Yeah, it was so sweet. But it was one of those things that you could almost feel your body getting hotter from the agitation. I know this is gonna sound psychotic, but that is the actor’s dream because that means I’m so in the story with these brilliant artists, Sudha Bhuchar and Jennifer Beveridge, who’s playing the Tilda character. I’m so in this heated, stuck moment that we are feeling it course through our veins, and that’s honestly how I felt many times acting with you, Nicole. The chemistry was so fiery and alive because you’re such a generous actor in terms of giving energy that it felt so alive no matter what the scene was. And so doing the elevator stuff and doing the noodle shop—

KIDMAN: Aww, the noodle shop. Yeah.

BLUE: Or the thing where you ask for the key, which is actually a less delightful moment but a gorgeous acting moment because I had so much fun living that moment so truthfully with you. And that’s really a testament to how much of a pro you are because you’ll give all of it right there. You don’t hold back, and it’s amazing.

KIDMAN: Aww. I mean, right back at you because you’re just, “Okay — what do we do?” I mean, we were in the back of the car in one scene, and we were having to work it and work it to find it.

BLUE: It wasn’t making sense. We had to flesh it out.

KIDMAN: And so we all stayed in there — Lulu, Sarayu, me. We were like, “Okay, how do we make this?” And we would rigorously work it until it just clicked. And sometimes, you’ve got to have patience waiting for the magic to happen.

BLUE: To find its way.

KIDMAN: And a lot of people will pull away and pull out early and go, “Okay, we got it.” But we didn’t really get it, so let’s stay in there and keep mining it for what we can find. And then, suddenly, it will go in a different direction, or something will be found, and then you’ll layer that in. And that takes three people who really love each other and want to create truth together and want to create something magical.

Nicole Kidman and Sarayu Blue Share the Other ‘Expats’ Characters They’d Like to Play
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It is so magical, and you each embody your characters so deeply. But Nicole, I know that when you were developing this with Lulu, you actually asked her which role she wanted you to play. I’m curious for both of you, if you had to play another role other than your own in the show — not taking into account race or gender or age or any of that — who would you be most curious to dive into?

BLUE: Wow. I gotta think about that — that’s a good question.

KIDMAN: All of them.

BLUE: Yeah, for different reasons.

KIDMAN: The pastor. I’d like to play the pastor. I love his quiet wisdom.

BLUE: It really is so extraordinary. I feel like I would love to play….gosh, it’s true — there’s something about all of them. There’s something about Puri (Amelyn Pardenilla) that I am so drawn to. She’s got this childlike [essence] that I find so beautiful. There’s just pure, like, “No, I can do this.” She’s still living the dream — believing in the dream — and I love that about Puri. But you’re right — all of them. Because my first thought was I could also see myself wanting to play Pastor Alan (Blessing Mokgohloa), but also then there’s Clark, who I think is so rich. That’s what I love about Lulu, too, is the way these characters are such dimensional human beings, and that’s why we’re drawn to all of them. Different people are drawn to different characters in different moments because they’re all so human.

KIDMAN: And Mercy. Mercy is such a great role, Ji-young Yoo is just fantastic in it. I just think they’re all great, great roles with the actors who come in to support that. So you get given good writing, but then you’ve got to show up, and you’ve got to mine it, and you’ve got to work, and you’ve got to be disciplined, and you’ve got to be committed, and you’ve got to be open and then be willing to share the deepest parts of what you have inside you. And Sarayu, you are at the top of the list. So thank you. I mean, for me as a producer, I say, “Thank you.” Like, really thank you. I’m just so privileged to be a part of it — it’s an incredible honor to be part of this ensemble.

BLUE: I think it’s very difficult to even imagine any of us playing any other role because it’s cast so brilliantly. We’re all where we’re supposed to be, and I can’t imagine playing anyone else or anything changing because every puzzle piece came together so beautifully. That’s really how I feel.

Expats is available to stream on Prime Video.