Imagine if the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team, a.k.a. the Dream Team, added Shaquille O’Neal (over Christian Laettner, obviously) to a lineup that already included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and Karl Malone. That’s Meryl Streep joining Big Little Lies season two. The HBO highbrow soap already had a stacked cast with Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz; now, with a six-time Oscar winner questioning the Monterey Five, it’s not even fair to other shows. If we extend the Dream Team analogy: Big Little Lies, the United States; other shows, Cuba.
In a “Big Little Roundtable” video uploaded by HBO, Streep revealed what made her a fan of the series, besides the screaming. “One thing I would say is that part of what made it so pungent in the first season, for me as a viewer, was that it was a very specific locale and the people were very specific,” she said. “It was just how detailed how life was that sort of made it meaningful for me.”
Woodley agreed (it’s Meryl freaking Streep — wouldn’t you?):
“One of the things that we’re lacking so much in society is empathy. Period. That’s like the base of why we even have to have this conversation. It’s the inability to empathize with another being despite whether you agree or disagree with their morals, their faith. To me, this was a group of women who did not understand each other. But by the end of the season, because of the events that occurred, five women, who would not normally relate to each other, were able to put their differences aside to support and stand up for one another, and I think that’s really powerful.” (Via)
The second episode of Big Little Lies season two airs this Sunday.
(Via HBO)
