Nine Perfect Strangers, the Nicole Kidman-led thriller series, has returned for a second season with a brand-new cast, a new location, and plenty more mystery for fans to get swept up in.
If you couldn’t tell by the title, shows sees nine (not so perfect) strangers, seeking a relaxing break at a wellness retreat — but relaxation proves difficult to come by.
The setting of the show, whether a sunny resort like the first season or a snowy mountain retreat in this case, plays a crucial role in creating an environment (much like White Lotus) that challenges and transforms the guests. The series often blurs the line between reality and perception, adding layers of suspense and psychological intrigue throughout the eight episodes.
Shortlist sat down recently with some of the stars of the show, including Mark Strong, Henry Golding, Murray Bartlett, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, and Aras Aydin, to learn more about their experiences working in such a large ensemble cast, how they spent their downtime in Germany, and more.
This is why Nine Perfect Strangers should be on your watchlist, according to the cast...
1. Working in a huge ensemble cast is good fun
“Everyone was horrible,” said Murray Bartlett about working on Nine Perfect Stranger with tongue firmly in cheek.
Thankfully Mark Strong, who plays David, was a little more forthcoming about working in an ensemble, adding:
“When you're with a group of nine people like that, or on stage with a bunch of people, you all rely on each other. You need each other to bring their A game to make the thing work.
"So I absolutely love being in ensembles, and I often wonder how people who do these one-man shows in the theatre, I think that must be so lonely”.
“Everybody brought something different, which is really what is intriguing about a series like Nine Perfect Strangers. There are so many characters to kind of delve in for,” added Henry Golding who plays Peter in the show.
That theatrical vein was tapped again by Annie Murphy: "We were away from home for six months, basically, and so we just had each other for a company. And it turned out all of us are just a bunch of real theatre nerds. It really kind of all clicked right out of the gates. It was awesome."
For relative newcomer Aras Aydin, who up until now had only worked on Turkish projects, the ensemble work was “an incredible experience."
"This is my first huge international project and our cast is really beautiful, huge, full of talented people, and I was so excited, and I'm still so excited,” said Aydin.
2. Downtime in Germany is for beer, baths and opera
The second season of Nine Perfect Strangers was predominantly filmed in Germany, so when we asked the cast about how they enjoyed their downtime, it unsurprisingly involved sampling the local ales.
"I had a driver, actually a guy called Dottel, who was really nice. He had this big beard, massive beer belly, and every evening, he took it upon himself to introduce me to a new kind of German beer that I'd never tried before," said Mark Strong. who called said drive "a legend".
"So I'd get in the van or the car at the end of the day, and tucked away there would be an obscure bottle of German beer. So that's kind of my highlight.
"When you film in Munich, I think beer, beer gardens, and beer are a huge part of your downtime”.
Christine Baranski swapped steins for sophistication, preferring to seek out some German opera.
"I was at the Munich opera constantly, and then when I had a few days off, I went, took a train to Vienna to hear the opera, or Salzburg. I even got to Budapest and Kraków. I found it just as a cultural experience. It was essentially a paid vacation for six months. I was in Europe, I had these beautiful, talented colleagues, but I was also culturally, just inhaling the middle Europa atmosphere."
Aras Aydin combined the beer and culture.
"The German beers were really tasty. And when I was free from the entire show, I went to play golf in Munich, walking around and meeting some friends who are living in Munich, and we spent time together," said Aydin.
"I saw, I think, 12 countries and seven cities, different cities. So, many beautiful people and beautiful traditional foods."
"I got a bike, and it's an amazing biking city. So, I would like to ride around, and we were there from roughly the winter through the spring," explained Murray Bartlett about his time in Munich.
"Particularly as spring began to arrive, it was a beautiful place to be. So I would go on long rides, and then we spent a lot of time in the Austrian Alps, which was just gorgeous."
3. A new location is what helps make this season stand out
It's clear that the new setting for Nine Perfect Strangers had an effect on the cast — so much that they should be employed by Trip Advisor when describing where they filmed.
Mark Strong called it: "Gorgeous", Christine Baranski "location porn" and Henry Golding was equally enamoured.
"To see something in the Alps with snow and these beautiful kind of castles and whatnot. We filmed in a stunning location, Hallstatt, which is just this tiny town, but beside this amazing, beautiful lakes, one of the most picturesque towns that you'll ever come across.”
We can feel the plane prices to Munich going up as we type this.
4. Different casting experiences brought the crew together
We also spoke about the cast's initial reactions when taking on the role and what drew them to their character, particularly given the mixed reasons why they said yes to the show.
Christina’s experience was the most unique of the bunch, but also the most confident, having accepted the role before even knowing anything much about her character, Victoria — other than that she was “complicated, funny and fabulously dressed.”
“I was offered this role maybe the day before the actors' strike. I have no memory of being told much about the character. All I heard was, it's Nicole Kidman. It's the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. They mentioned the actors who were being offered roles, and that it was shot in Germany and Austria. So I just said, 'Yes'."
Mark Strong seemed to have a bit more insight into his character, David, but was equally as chuffed with the role, thanks to the fact that “he's very wealthy, he's very sure of himself. He's in control of everything. And what's interesting, obviously, about the series as it unfolds, is you learn a lot more about him, and you learn that what you see at first is not what you eventually find out about him. So that made the character fascinating.”
Annie and Murray both spoke of Murray’s character, Brian, and how fun it was to see him take on a character that is so different to how Murray is personally. Murray described him as “kind of a wild, kind of great character this children's TV show host who's been canceled, and works with a puppet. There's just so, so many places that I could see it could go that could be fun and and interesting.
“It's a great opportunity as a person to vent your frustrations through that, but also that you get to reveal these sorts of inner parts of a character. It's very kind of me, it's a great opportunity as an actor.”
5. Three words, one show
Before our time was up, each member of the cast described the show in three words, or in five in Aras’ case, but that just further highlighted his enthusiasm for people to get their eyes on this season. Here’s what they said:
- Mark Strong: Perfect TV. Rich.
- Henry Golding: Bountiful shenanigans. Varied.
- Murray Bartlett: Unexpected. Poignant. Joyful.
- Annie Murphy: Unhinged. Beautiful. German.
- Christine Baranski: Gorgeous. Surprise. Mystery
- Aras Aydin: Healing. Poison. Getting high. Hollywood
Season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers is currently streaming on Amazon Prime here in the UK with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays.
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