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Interview: Dolly de Leon on starring in Prime Video series 'Nine Perfect Strangers' season 2
Interview: Dolly de Leon on starring in Prime Video series 'Nine Perfect Strangers' season 2
At A Glance
- It will premiere on May 22 in the Philippines
Acclaimed Filipino actress Dolly de Leon has come a long way in her career.
De Leon, who earned Golden Globe and British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) nominations for “Triangle of Sadness,” is starring in the upcoming Prime Video series “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2, premiering on May 22 in the Philippines.
Directed by Jonathan Levine (“Long Shot,” “Snatched,” “The Night Before”), “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2 tells the story of nine new strangers who are invited by mysterious guru Masha Dmitrichenko (Kidman) to join a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. Masha is willing to try anything in the interest of healing everyone involved, including herself.
“Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2 stars Kidman, Henry Golding as Peter, Lena Olin as Helena, Annie Murphy Imogen, Christine Baranski as Victoria, Lucas Englander as Martin, King Princess as Tina, Murray Bartlett as Brian, Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Wolfie, Mark Strong as David, Aras Aydin as Matteo and De Leon as Agnes.
De Leon is busy juggling her career in the Philippines and abroad. After appearing in last year’s Amazon Studios movie “Jackpot!,” starring Awkwafina and John Cena, De Leon is back with “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin, De Leon talked about her role and working with the cast, including Kidman.
In “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2, De Leon plays the role of nun Agnes.
For the series, De Leon was contacted by Fifth Season, one of the producers of “Nine Perfect Strangers,” and said it was an honor, especially that Kidman, who won an Oscar for best actress for “The Hours” in 2003, was also a producer. .
“My team was approached by Fifth Season, the producers of ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ and they offered the role of Agnes to me. Of course, I was so flattered because Nicole Kidman is also a producer, so I felt very honored that she even considered me. So it was a great honor. And especially when I read the script, that's when it really, for me, that was what sealed the deal because I fell in love with Agnes Romero, the character that I play,” he said.
De Leon said her character “is not a pushover.”
“She's not one to be trifled with. She has her own beliefs and her own strong convictions about life and theology and ideology. She cannot be put in a box. She will constantly look for answers and will constantly question laws or rules that are brought about to her. And that's what I love about her. She's a person of her own. She's a very strong woman and she fights for what she believes in,” she said.
De Leon had her own vision on how to portray her character. For this, she sought the help of her friend, a nun, at St. Scholastica’s College Manila.
“I did. I had to study a lot about it although I went to Catholic school. I have been exposed to nuns at a very young age but I still had to do the proper digging and really finding out what makes this character tick,” she said.
She added, “So I talked to a very good friend of mine, Sister Mary John of St. Scholastica's College. I asked her some questions and she really shed some light into how to approach Sister Agnes. So it's really more of talking to people who could possibly be in her shoes.”
De Leon praised the series’ directors Jonathan Levine and Anthony Byrne for giving the cast the freedom to explore their characters.
“I loved working with Jonathan Levine. He gave us free reign to explore and to just go and dig and to dive in and to do whatever we feel that we feel is appropriate for the character. He sat down with us and talked to us and asked us about what we think of our characters, why they behave a certain way,” she explained.
She said Levine “really gave us free reign and It was really a pure collaboration. We were really talking about how we would approach the characters and he gave us so much space to explore and to really bring in our own attack to the character. It wasn't a pure like the director telling us what to do. He really made us take ownership of the characters that we were playing.”
“I also have to mention Anthony Byrne who's also one of our directors, we have two directors here. It's Jonathan Levine and Anthony Byrne. Both of them gave us so much space and freedom to explore and talk about our characters and play them the way we saw fit,” she said.
“Triangle of Sadness” was screened at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and won the prestigious Palme d'Or.
De Leon also earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of cleaning woman Abigail and won best supporting performer at the 48th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards besides earning the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.
She said doing international projects is a different experience.
“It's really a different world. It's a very different world from what I'm used to in the Philippines because usually here in the Philippines, at least my experience, I can't speak for everyone, but in the Philippines, we're told where to stand, where to go, what to do, and how to approach things,” she said.
De Leon explained, “But in the international scene, it's different. They tell us, ‘This is my vision.’ The director usually tells us, ‘This is my vision. This is what I want to see.’ And then, ‘what do you think?’ They will ask us that question. They will throw it back at us. So, we have a saying in how to create our characters so for me that's a big difference because as an actor we want to have ownership of the characters that we play and that's the big difference with the international scene.”
De Leon said she has two teams for her projects in the Philippines and abroad.
“That's the magic of my team. I have two teams, I have a team in the US and I have a team here in the Philippines. We all talk together and see how we can balance it all out,” she said.
She said, “It's really a matter of scheduling, so it really depends on which material I strongly resonate with and that becomes a priority, like, for example, ‘Nine Perfect Strangers.’ We shot that for six months in Munich, so it was a full commitment and focusing only on this show for six months without, you know, doing anything else. So it's really more of prioritizing and setting things straight with everybody in terms of schedule.”
“Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2 hails from David E. Kelley, Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories, Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films, and Fifth Season.
The series is executive produced by Kelley, Kidman, Papandrea, Per Saari, Levine, Byrne, Steve Hutensky, Molly Allen, Rachel Shukert, Liane Moriarty, Matthew Tinker, and JH Butterworth.