Naomi Watts on Nicole Kidman Playing ‘The Perfect Couple’ With Her Ex

Naomi Watts on Nicole Kidman Playing ‘The Perfect Couple’ With Her Ex

Naomi Watts has no problem with her on-screen best friend and her ex being in a relationship.

Speaking with Entertainment weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival for her aptly titled new film, The FriendWatts says her best friend of decades Nicole Kidman reached out to her before she went to work with her ex-partner of 11 years, Liev Schreiber, on the Netflix thriller series, The perfect couple.

“We always check in, we’re best friends,” Watts tells EW. “That was really nice of her to do that.”

Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts attend the AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Nicole Kidman on April 27, 2024.

Jon Kopaloff/Getty


Kidman and Schreiber play wealthy couple Greer and Tag Winbury in the Netflix series The perfect couple, based on the popular book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand. The mystery series revolves around the Winbury family, who have gathered in Nantucket for the wedding of son Benji (Billy Howle) and Amelia (Eve Hewson), but the wedding is disrupted when an attendee is found dead the morning of the ceremony and everyone is a suspect.

Watts tells EW that she hasn’t had a chance to watch the new show yet, but she can’t wait to binge-watch it. “I’m dying to[watch]it because everyone’s raving about it. It just launched two days ago,” Watts says. “I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve seen the trailer. It looks amazing.”

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Liev Schreiber and Nicole Kidman in ‘The Perfect Couple’.

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix


Watts and Schreiber began dating in 2005 after meeting at the Met Gala. They split in 2016 but have remained friendly since then as they raise their two children together, Sasha, 17, and Kai, 15.

“We do things very differently. I’m quite proud of us, as corny as that may sound,” Watts previously said Net-a-Porter“We have made it our absolute priority to be good and kind to each other and we are absolutely committed to that.”

The friendly exes each married their new partners in 2023. Watts married Morning show actor Billy Crudup, while Schreiber married former pageant queen Taylor Neisen, with whom he has a 1-year-old daughter, Hazel Bee.

In 2022, Watts shared a photo on Instagram of the former couple and their children, along with Crudup and Neisen, celebrating Kai’s high school graduation. The caption read, “#modernfamily.”

Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber in 2016.

Dominik Magdziak Photography/Getty


Watts and Kidman met when the Australian actresses were teenagers at an audition for a swimsuit commercial, where they became fast friends, chatting for hours in the waiting room before realizing they’d both missed the gig. “We talked about everything, what movies we liked, what friends we had in common, our parents, schools, parties, boyfriends, teenage stuff,” Watts recalled of their first conversation, in her speech at the AFI Life Achievement Award Gala honoring Kidman earlier this year.

The perfect couple is now available on Netflix.

With reporting by Gerrad Hall.