Perhaps not surprisingly, “Big Little Lies” star Alexander Skarsgard found the scenes in which his character had to brutally abuse his wife, played by Nicole Kidman, very challenging to shoot.
“It was an extraordinary experience and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than Nicole, but it was very tough to shoot those physical scenes where I beat her, [those] were horrible to shoot,” Skarsgard told TheWrap, revealing director Jean-Marc Vallee’s naturalistic, organic style of shooting that required long takes. “There were a couple of scenes in the bedroom, it was very violent, they were tough to shoot. Those days were horrible.”
The HBO series actor also revealed the scenes were shot in Los Angeles and he and Kidman had to work to make sure they didn’t take any of the baggage from the day home with them.
“We kind of just had to check in with each other after every take,” Skarsgard said. “Especially at the end of a long day, because it’s so weird going from doing that for 10 to 12 hours… to then jump in your car and you’re in rush hour traffic on your way home. It was very important, after a day of that, to check in with each other. They were obviously physically tough, but emotionally draining [too] and it’s horrible doing that stuff.”
See the video above, where Skarsgard also discussed his first audition (it was for “Zoolander”) and whether he’s a binge-watcher or a once-a-weeker when it comes to TV.