On ‘Top of the Lake’ in Sydney with Nicole Kidman, Elisabeth Moss and Jane Campion

LOS ANGELES—“It’s the thickest, most beautiful grey hair you’ve ever seen, right?” Nicole Kidman said with a laugh as she appeared and surprised us, sporting a long, curly grey wig. We were on the set of Season 2 of Jane Campion’s TV series, “Top of the Lake,” in a park in a suburb outside Sydney.

It was late afternoon in June last year. Jane was worried about losing the afternoon light but she graciously sat down with Nicole (whom she calls Nic) for this interview.

Jane, the second of only four women to earn an Academy best director nod and so far the first and only female to receive Cannes’ Palme d’Or (for “The Piano”), said of Nicole’s appearance: “I thought it would be fun to have her be older. Just a little bit different for her to keep the grey hair, not be the blonde. ”

“I also thought it would be really liberating for you,” Jane said with a smile, as she turned to face Nicole. “Not to have to feel like, oh, I have to be young and beautiful. I just have to be the character. To be that woman. ”

Nicole apologized and said she planned to change from her costume. But since she was still filming, she talked to us in her costume, grey wig and all. So, we couldn’t take photos of Nicole. We just took pics of Jane and Elisabeth Moss, who joined us later, when Nicole had to leave to shoot her scenes.

Almost a year later, Jane premiered “Top of the Lake: China Girl” to raves in the Cannes Film Festival. In an ironic twist, some critics wrote that the highlight of the prestigious film fest was Jane’s SundanceTV show, with all six hourlong episodes screened to enthusiastic reviews.

“China Girl,” cowritten by Jane and Gerard Lee, marks the return of Elisabeth as detective Robin Griffin and the debut of Nicole as Julia, the adoptive mother of Mary, the daughter Robin gave up 17 years ago. Also in the cast are Gwendoline Christie (as Miranda), Alice Englert (Jane’s talented daughter plays Mary), David Dencik (Puss) and Ewen Leslie (Pyke).

Sitting in folding chairs under a white tent, Nicole and Jane talked about their friendship which began when the former was barely in her teens and now, it has lasted for three decades.

“I was at film school and I needed a young girl for my graduation film,” recounted Jane, a New Zealand native but now lives in Australia. “I went to the Phillip Street Theatre which was run by this portly, pretty camp guy. Nic was one of the students. Very keen. Sitting in the front row. ”

Nicole, born in Honolulu and raised in Sydney, said, “I was 14.”

Jane continued, “I cast her in the role. I didn’t think she really liked the film project very much.”

No to kissing a girl
“No,” Nicole agreed. “I didn’t want to kiss a girl.”

Jane recalled, “Yeah, and so her mom came up with some excuse like she’s got to focus on her school work. I knew.”

Nicole interjected, “No, I said I had my school exams. But now, I so regret that.”

Jane added, “I understood. I sent her a postcard saying, ‘Maybe one day, we’ll get to work together. Don’t worry. Do well at school.’ Nic and I just kept coming up against each other. We really did want to work together. We did ‘The Portrait of a Lady.’ That was a big project for both of us and we really got to know each other well.”

Now, they are reunited in this TV series which Jane codirected with Ariel Kleiman. Jane teased Nicole, “She actually invited herself (to be in the show).”

Nicole chuckled as she said, “I didn’t invite myself. I said, ‘I’ll do anything for you.’ I love her.”

Elisabeth shared with us some details of the scene they were doing when she arrived and took Nicole’s seat. “It’s from Episode 5, and is a little about the relationship of Julia (Nicole) and Pyke (Ewen). They’re estranged from each other. She’s got a lesbian partner. Now, there’s a sense that Robin and Pyke, the adoptive father of her child, are getting close. ”

Jane revealed details on the “China Girl” aspects of this Season 2. We met several Asian transgender actors in the show in Bondi Beach, which is one of the important locations. The body of an Asian sex worker is found in a trunk off this world-famous beach.

“There is a really big Asian story within our story,” Jane began. “Sydney actually has a really big Asian population so we really wanted to emphasize that in our series. Maybe you don’t see them in this part of Sydney but if you’re going west, you could be in Vietnam.

‘China Girl’
“The title ‘China Girl’ is like a John Doe or a Jane Doe. They don’t know who the body is so they ‘racist-ly’ call it China Girl. The season is kind of a comment about a situation in Australia where some students come from Asia and can work on student visas. That is how a lot of the brothels (prostitution is legal in Australia), which are legal, find girls.

“They come as students and actually have to enroll in a university but they never go to the university. They’re legally allowed to work 20 hours a week. Of course, they work many more hours in the shops, as the brothels are called.

“I was really interested in that world. We did some research and spent time at an Asian shop here in Australia. This is a sort of a loophole in the law that’s never really been intended to be used this way. They don’t really know how to close it up.”

The celebrated filmmaker shared more details: “The story is like four years later does not find Robin in a good place. It’s not the happily ever after that we may have hoped that she was going to find. In fact, it’s like that sour apple in paradise.

“Things do not work out with Johnno (Robin’s teenage sweetheart). She’s in a really dangerous, bad place—needing work, to remember who she is and find her identity again. She’s tried to have babies with Johnno. It didn’t work out. When she gets back to Sydney, she finds herself coming into her daughter’s life at a point where the family can’t cope with the daughter.

“It’s also a crime story. She’s got a crime to solve—a dead body in a suitcase and how all those stories intersect and end up being part of the same world. As revealed throughout those six hours, the worlds of Julia and her husband Pyke, and Mary and Robin get very close. It becomes almost a battle of the mothers.”

The director explained why she moved the series’ setting from New Zealand to Australia. “The Robin character lived in or grew up in Australia, trained as a police officer there. I wanted a whole new world. I thought it would be really fun to play in Sydney. Also, the kind of crime that I wanted to tell couldn’t be done in New Zealand. I wanted to set it in an Asian shop or, as they call it, an Asian brothel.”

Aside from praising Elisabeth and Nicole, Jane also singled out Gwendoline, another new face in Season 2. “My God, I think they’re going to be amazed by what they see Gwendoline doing. Her work is incredible.”

Added Jane, “She’s found a way to use her ‘Gwendoline-ss’ in the character of Miranda. She’s the full deal. ”

Elisabeth chimed in, “And Gwendoline is hilarious, too. She’s got this amazing sense of humor.”

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