Meryl Streep Reveals That Skinnydipping at 5 O'Clock In the Morning Is Something Her ‘Big Little Lies’ Co-Star Nicole Kidman Apparently Enjoys

Nicole Kidman was the belle of the ball this weekend, glittering in a gold metallic Balenciaga dress complete with a long train as she received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award on Saturday night. Among those there to fete the Academy Award winner were Morgan Freeman, Reese Witherspoon, Naomi Watts, and Meryl Streep, who actually presented Kidman with the award.

“For me, the very, very hardest part of being incessantly called the greatest actress of my generation,” Streep teased as the audience roared, “throwing her hand theatrically over her head,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. “What is the hardest part? Oh! The hardest part is when you come up against, or you’re acting with, another person who is also really, really, really, really, really, really great. That’s difficult.”

Of her Big Little Lies season two co-star, “It’s like somebody who you work all day with and you go home—‘That was a great day, great day’—and you go home and you go, ‘How did she do that?’” Streep said of Kidman as she poured and then mimed downing a drink. “‘I could do that.’ ‘No, I don’t think I could.’ ‘Yes you could!’ ‘No, no, you couldn’t do that.’”

Looking back on the HBO hit—which is reportedly planning a third season—Streep said “That’s the time when I really came within breathing distance of the formidable gifts Nicole has, and her process and her seismic bank of emotion she’s got locked up inside there, and her stamina and her drive to be an artist, and her discipline.” 

Streep recalled when Kidman chose to shoot a very emotional screaming scene on the first day—and did it over and over and over again with equal passion. “I haven’t recovered from that first day,” Streep said. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. For me, it was traumatizing because I thought, ‘This woman is a Valkyrie. How is she able to sustain that? Never letting up, never letting down.’”

In another part of her speech, Streep said of Kidman “You’re like a mustang, a workhorse, and a champion racer all in one, but one whose spirit they’ll never break,” she said. “Never. The range of your work is stunning. Your list of credits and roles and good deeds in the world would take a normal person three lifetimes to achieve. Your life and your resume challenges everything we know about how many hours there are in the day and how many places a woman can be at one time. It’s hard not to envy Nicole, but it’s also impossible not to be in awe of her.” 

Of their time spent working together in 2019 on Big Little Lies, Streep said “When an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown, she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being. But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she just loves it. And I think that’s the greatest attribute an actor can have—that blend of appetite and curiosity and recklessness. You have that, baby.”

As she accepted the award, Kidman returned the praise for Streep, saying “Meryl Streep, I just love you. I’ve always loved you. I don’t know what it is, but you’re a beacon of excellence and warmth and generosity, but you’ve been my guiding light, so to receive this from you—you have no idea. My husband will attest, my parents will attest, it’s always been you, and no one can touch you.”

Kidman was the first Australian to receive the prestigious award, and while the tributes were largely sentimental, Streep also revealed a very interesting anecdote about her co-star, who she called “a wild mongrel talent”: “Reese [Witherspoon] told me the very first night we were up in Monterey, before we started shooting, she said, ‘You know what she does?’” Streep said. “I said, ‘No, Nicole?’ She goes, ‘Yeah, you know what she does? She goes out at 5 [a.m.], before dawn, and she goes skinnydipping behind the hotel in the ocean.’ I looked at Nicole and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? The Pacific is like 48 degrees in March.’ Nicole said, ‘Yeah! I love it!’”