You can ditch any concerns about a sophomore slump when it comes to Season 2 of HBO's hit series, "Big Little Lies," which airs Sunday, June 9.
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Reviewers have almost universally praised the second season as on being par with its award-winning predecessor. And the addition of Meryl Streep — who joins Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Zoe Kravitz, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley as the mother of Nicole's character's late, abusive husband — seems to have the entire cast a little giddy.
"Meryl is just amazing. To watch her do her craft — and it really is artistic craft — we all just went, 'Can you believe it?!'" Nicole tells the UK's Hello! magazine (via the Daily Mail).
"It raises the bar for everyone. I think she elevates the show," Nicole continues. "We have meaty, really great scenes."
Meryl, 69, "has a fantastic character," according to Nicole, who also co-produces the series with Reese. "It's grounded and it's based in something very, very real."
Nicole also admits she didn't see a second season for "Big Little Lies," which was adapted from Liane Moriarty's bestselling book.
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"It was through sheer enthusiasm from the fans and my mother saying 'It's too short' that made us realize we had to do more," she explains. "It's amazing to have the fans and the audiences react in the way that they have is incredible. That's why we had to scramble together to get this second series together. Because of the audience's desire."
One key member of that audience turned out to be Meryl, who revealed at a panel discussion in New York City last month that she accepted the role of Mary Louise (Meryl's legal name) without reading the script.
"[My agent] said, 'There's a part that they wrote with you in mind because they called her Mary Louise. … I said, 'Yeah, I'll do it,'" Meryl recalled (via Us Weekly). "He said, 'Don't you want to read it?' I said, 'No.' It was the greatest thing on TV. It really was, that first season."
As Nicole told Variety last fall, she and Reese were both stunned when Reese got an email from Meryl expressing interest in the role.
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"[Meryl] goes, 'I suppose now I have to join you.' And we were like, 'What?' The two of us were just shocked," Nicole said at the time.
"There was no script when Streep signed on. She hadn't even read it. That's how much she wanted to support us."
Asked about working with the three-time Oscar winner, Laura Dern simply calls her a "goddess," telling Us Weekly working with Meryl is "like the gift of a lifetime for an actress" and marveling at how close the women on the show have become.
"We love each other truly like family now," she says.
"There's a deepened experience, when you already know the characters, to get to do a second season in ways we couldn't explore the first time around. … We had the time of our lives."