After a number of mediocre to bad film roles in recent years, Nicole Kidman has been making waves again in two critically acclaimed TV series - Big Little Lies and Top of the Lake: China Girls.

The Oscar winning actress recently spoke to THR about the increased diversity and complexity of roles available for women in television.

Speaking at the Australian premiere of Top Of The Lake, she said that "great roles are being developed for women right now – they are not in film, they are in television," adding "they’re on both, but they’re rare in film though."

“I think in television right now, there’s great opportunity for women because it’s a place in which there is money and directors of this calibre who are willing to work in that medium and write and explore their storytelling,” she continued.

Nicole Kidman in Top of the Lake: China Girl

 

"I think there's an enormous appeal for actors working there because you have time to develop a character and for stories to unfold. Like Big Little Lies where there was five amazing roles for women. That's where obviously the great roles are being developed for women right now."

She acknowledged that creating Big Little Lies, on which she was a producer, was motivated by frustration.

“Reese [Witherspoon, co-producer and co-star] and I were frustrated because we weren’t being offered the sort of roles we wanted in terms of complexity and that was born out of a desire to create an opportunity for ourselves and our friends,” she said. “We were able to do that because we had the ability to go and option a book like Big Little Lies, and we had a company that gave us the money to at least develop it and then it took off.

“The more things that are made that are successful that have women as leads is great, because it inspires others and it also gives the people that put the money behind things the belief it’s going to be successful or has the opportunity to be successful. We’re all helping each other."

Kidman additionally cited The Handmaid's Tale as being an important TV series for and about women, and talked about Top of the Lake as an inspiration for Big Little Lies. See the interview in full here.