Heartbroken Nicole has admitted that playing the abused mother in the HBO show, who is repeatedly beaten by her husband Perry, played by Alexander Skarsgard, caused her severe physical injury.
“I would go home at night sometimes and be in a lot of pain, and I had to take things like Advil because I was being thrown around physically. I was really bruised,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. “At one point Keith [Urban] was like, ‘I’m going to take a photo of your back because it’s covered in deep, massive bruises. He was devastated seeing it.”
Nic, who was once married to Tom Cruise, revealed how emotionally hurt she was by the role, too.
“I didn’t quite realise how it was going to affect me,” she told Elle magazine. “It affected me more than anything I’ve ever done. Doing that for five months and then going home, I had to sort of keep it quiet.
“I was trying to be stoic about it, and be secret about it, but it penetrated my psyche.”
Thankfully, husband Keith – who released a song ‘Female’ about #MeToo and, he explained at the time, in support of the women in his life – was able to offer Nicole support while she was filming Big Little Lies.
“I’d come back and I’d need Keith to hold me, just to feel soothed,” she admits.
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