Emmy-winning actor Murray Bartlett praised his co-stars in the Prime Video series “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2, which is set to premiere in the Philippines on May 22. 

The second season will see nine new strangers being invited by Masha Dmitrichenko (Nicole Kidman), a guru, for a transformational wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. 

The series stars Kidman and the nine strangers: Bartlett, Henry Golding, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, King Princess, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Mark Strong and Aras Aydin.The cast also includes Lena Olin and Lucas Englander. 

In the series, Bartlett plays the role of Brian, a former children’s show host and puppeteer. 

In an interview with Manila Bulletin,  Bartlett talked about his character, Brian, and working with the cast, including Kidman. 

He described Brian as “a children's TV show host who has had a bit of a fall from grace and he battles with anger management issues.”

Bartlett received an offer to star in “Nine Perfect Strangers” and he fell in love with the show’s concept and the character. 

“I mean they sent some scripts and asked if I was interested.  I think it's because I love the concept of this show so much and I love this character and so it wasn't a hard choice for me and fortunately, they were keen to have me on board.  So yeah it was a sweet thing,” he said. 

To prepare for his role, Bartlett researched more about dealing with trauma. 

“I took tons of mushrooms. No, I’m kidding,” he said with a laugh.”I  did look into, you know, I was already aware of the kind of therapeutic uses of mushrooms and or psychedelics and psilocybin in dealing with trauma.” 

He said, “So I was interested to kind of dive a little more into that cuz I think it's a fascinating subject and it's very kind of you know in the zeitgeist now and there having some great sort of results, especially with addiction and people dealing with trauma. I found that really fascinating and wanted to kind of dive a little deeper into that and also just sort of gathering information about what it is to be in a psychedelic state and just to sort of be armed with that kind of knowledge.“

“And then I looked at a lot of kids TV shows and kids TV show hosts and sort of tried to find the kind of essence of what those shows are and what some of those hosts bring.  So yeah, that was sort of my preparation I guess,” he said. 

“Nine Perfect Strangers’ took six months to film and it allowed the cast to get to know each other, . 

“It's an extraordinary cast of wonderful people and we were six months shooting this show and all taken out of our lives, our personal lives and into a sort of a boot camp together in a way, in a different country,” he said. 

According to Bartlett, “So like it was because the show is in all these amazing locations in Germany and Austria. So it was wonderful, you know, we really, you really bond with each other when you're in that kind of situation, you're all sort of transplanted together and you kind of rely on each other in a different way.” 

Bartlett won an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for “The White Lotus” in 2022. 

He also won best supporting actor for the series at the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards and Critics' Choice Television Award. 

Working with Nicole Kidman

Bartlett said he and the other cast members were excited to work with Kidman, who is also a producer of the show. 

“Nicole is iconic and we were all super excited to work with her. She's created such a kind of iconic role in Masha so it was thrilling. It was thrilling to work with her and to be part of this process and we had great directors, and just great material to kind of dive into lots of layers and it was also really fun so it was a great adventure. This job . Really very, very enjoyable,” he said. 

He said the chemistry among the cast was “amazing.” 

“We were fortunate. You never quite know how it's going to work when you come together with a group of people and in a situation where we are all transplanted, it's quite an intense situation in a way because you sort of in each other's pockets out of your sort of regular support systems, support structures,” he said. 

He said, “But we all fell in love with each other fortunately, and had a lot of fun and hung out outside of work in our sort of you know temporary homes in Germany and Austria. So we had a blast and we had such great scenes to do together and it's a great show in that way.” 

“And that it's really fun, and but it also has a lot of layers of sort of depth of these people kind of dealing with their trauma. So it was really fun stuff for us to kind of play together and some of the scenes are quite vulnerable emotionally so this and because we all got on well, so well together, it was kind of a joy to go into the…We felt like, well, I felt like I could be vulnerable with the other actors and also we just sort of effortlessly had a lot of fun together so it was really great,’ he said. 

This was the first time that Bartlett worked with the cast members in a project.  

“I hadn't worked with anyone in the cast before. I've just been a fanboy of their work but yeah, so it was fresh and new for me,” he said. 

About the message of “Nine Perfect Strangers” season 2, Bartlett said, “I'm thinking because I think that there's several. I mean, I think that I think there's a lot of fun to be had watching the show for sure but I think there's, it's a show essentially about people moving through the things that are blocking them.” 

“The things that are the baggage that they have or the trauma that they're carrying, attempting to kind of move through that and I guess the takeaway would be that, you know, it's possible to do that and you can come out the other side, finding some treasures and being able to move on from the things that you know you've been holding onto,’ he said. 

Related story: 

Interview: Dolly de Leon on starring in Prime Video series ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ season 2