Nicole Kidman discusses collaborating with the amazing cast of season 2 of ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’

LOS ANGELES — “Nine Perfect Strangers” returns with a new season introducing Nicole Kidman’s character Masha Dmitrichenko, a wellness guru seeking a fresh start after the intense events of the previous season.

This season, the setting shifts from sunny California to the Austrian Alps, and Kidman is accompanied by a new, star-studded cast that includes Henry Golding, Christine Baranski, Murray Bartlett, Mark Strong, Lena Olin, Annie Murphy, Lucas Englander, King Princess, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Aras Aydin.

On The Red Carpet spoke with the stars at the season two premiere, where they shared what’s in store for these nine perfect strangers.

“It’s just such a rich story, which lends itself to many different reinventions, and Masha herself is a reinvention every time,” Kidman told us.

Serving as both an executive producer and lead actress, Kidman emphasized her enjoyment in highlighting the exceptional talents of the cast in the series stating, “I’m in the middle of it all, but I get to shine a light on everybody else who’s in it, and this time around, it was this extraordinary cast.”

We asked Henry Golding about his character. “This role really kind of pushed every element of myself as an actor, like to explore the physical comedy, I loved it so much. There’s depth to it. There’s joy. There’s love. So for me, like, it was amazing to kind of push that and kind of go to places I haven’t been yet.”

“Nine Perfect Strangers” was filmed in various locations including Austria and Munich, and star Christine Baranski told us all about the experience.

“We were overseas together in Munich and Austria for six months, and I’m an opera lover and a music lover, and I love to go to museums, so I spent so much of my time inhaling high culture when I wasn’t working or traveling! I took trains, you know, to Vienna and Salzburg, Budapest. I even flew over to Kraków, so to me, it was almost like a paid vacation,” she recounted.

Murray Bartlett plays one of nine strangers, a “canceled” children’s TV show host, whose sidekick is a puppet. We wondered how he prepared for the role.

“A lot of kid’s TV that I watched,” Bartlett explained. “I met with a puppeteer who’s amazing, this incredible guy from ‘Sesame Street’ who sort of gave me a few pointers and kind of got me into it, but yeah! I just, I watched like Pee-wee Herman, ‘Mister Rogers’ and ‘Lamb Chop,’ did kind of a full kind of sweep and tried to kind of steal bits from each.”

The synopsis for season two is as follows:

“Nine new strangers connected in ways they could never imagine are invited by mysterious guru, Masha Dmitrichenko, to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. Will they make it? Will she? Masha is willing to try anything in the interest of healing everyone involved, including herself.”

Watch the trailer here.

Season two of “Nine Perfect Strangers” premieres with two episodes May 21 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, followed by weekly releases.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Hulu and this ABC station.