‘I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET MERYL’
Aussie author Liane Moriarty’s new project
Liane Moriarty might be the only person in the world who willingly turned down the opportunity to watch Meryl Streep at work.
The Australian author was invited to watch Streep and the rest of the Big Little Lies cast film Season 2, but said no. “I haven’t met [Meryl Streep] at all. I didn’t go over this time because I was busy writing Nine Perfect Strangers. They invited me – I was very welcome but, yes, I sacrificed it for my readers and focused on my new book,” Moriarty, 51, explains. “I hope I get to meet her at the premiere of the series, but it’s almost enough for me to see her playing the scenes I imagined in my head. I feel like I would be so starstruck meeting Meryl. She is another level. It would almost be enough to be at the premiere and stand a few feet away and observe her that way. A girlfriend did say to me, ‘Oh Liane, being famous is just wasted on you,’ ” she says. “I loved going over the first time because I’d never been to see a film set and it was great fun, but also … you’re just sitting there, watching. I must admit I got a little impatient!”
As for the other important ladies at the helm of her adaptation, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, Moriarty is still shocked to call them her friends. “They’re lovely, warm and charming. I never expected to make new friends out of this experience,” she admits. “I feel it’s probably quite unique; they did make a point of keeping me involved right from the beginning. And I have other projects which may not be the same at all, so I do feel very lucky. I suspect they’re just really special and it’s been wonderful.”
Over the past few years, Moriarty has enjoyed some pretty special moments. “I have enjoyed all the Hollywood side of things. Probably seeing Nicole [Kidman] for the first time when she was dressed as Celeste, being on the set and seeing her dressed for the school trivia night. I was so lucky that, just by chance, I was over there at the time they were filming that night,” Moriarty recalls. “Also being at the [2017] Emmys, sitting in the audience and walking up on stage was definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment.”
But as Moriarty explains, her main focus is always the books. “The best moments are still seeing people reading my books out in public,” she says. “I love it when readers come up and say they’re proud of me for every Australian.”
Her new novel, Nine Perfect Strangers, like Moriarty’s seven others, is a very funny, frequently touching, suspenseful read. It revolves around nine people visiting a health retreat and being faced with a potentially dangerous foe. But as Moriarty warns, she has no interest in sticking to a formula. “I don’t ever want to think I have to write a particular type of book over and over. I start writing and see where it takes me. I don’t like it when people say, ‘Liane’s new thriller is out,’ because people will be disappointed.”
On July 27, it was announced Kidman’s Blossom Films acquired the screen rights. Moriarty laughs away the suggestion that Big Little Lies executive producers Kidman and Witherspoon fought each other for the rights. “No, no squabbling,” she says, adding that she always pictured her fellow Aussie playing the possibly sociopathic spa owner Masha Dmitrichenko in Nine Perfect Strangers.
“I had thought of Nicole for that role from the beginning. She’ll be amazing for it. In fact ,it was Nicole who corrected my pronunciation – I say it the Australian way Ma-sha.”
It joins a number of other Moriarty books waiting to hit the big or small screen. Jennifer Aniston has been attached to What Alice Forgot since 2015. “I haven’t heard that she’s detached herself; I’d love it if she played Alice,” Liane says. Blake Lively is linked to The Husband’s
Secret and Witherspoon and Kidman have also optioned Truly Madly Guilty.
Most authors don’t have much say after screen rights are bought, but Moriarty’s involvement in Big Little Lies has been constant. Nonetheless, she took some convincing to write the second series’ outline. “I was saying, I don’t want to write anything for it, but if you do do it, you should do this … and just coming up with little themes for the fun of it,” she says.
“They were really enthusiastic but they would have done it without me, I’m sure.”
Moriarty wrote a 50,000 word novella, which showrunner David E. Kelley turned into a script. Kelley was also doubtful about a second series, but her creation of the “delicious character” Mary Louise, Celeste’s mother-inlaw, played by Streep, changed his mind. If there’s a third series, Moriarty won’t be involved – “My mind’s filled with Nine Perfect Strangers and what I write for my next book.”
But when Hollywood inevitably comes knocking, her family – partner Adam and their children, George, 10, and Anna, 8 – will keep her grounded. “Pink put on Instagram [that] she was reading What Alice Forgot, and my son lost his mind. He was grabbing me by the shoulders saying, ‘OK, this could be next level now,’ ” she recalls. “He said, ‘But just keep writing your books and don’t take yourself too seriously.’ He gave me a pep talk about keeping grounded.”
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, (Macmillan Australia, $32.99).