Amazon Grapples With Backlash, Nicole Kidman Drama

Amazon Studios is denying reports that Nicole Kidman walked off the production of Hong Kong’s Expats.

“Nicole wrapped as scheduled, she did not leave early. She always had other projects she was committed to. The production is not stalled or on hiatus, it was always going to continue shooting without her,” said an Amazon spokesman in a comment emailed to Variety.

Reports in Hong Kong claimed that Kidman and director Lulu Wang had creative differences. Other reports claim that Wang and Kidman visibly argued while filming in a street market. Kidman is starring and an exec producer. The production of the show has been rife with scandal, ranging from political appropriateness and the quarantine exemption granted to Kidman.

The show is based on a Janice Y.K. Lee novel, and focuses on the lives of privileged expat women, primarily foreign and Caucasian. The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English-language daily, labeled the production “tone deaf.” Time dubbed it a treatise on “white privilege”.

Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald ran a news analysis piece headlined “How insensitive can she be?: Exiled Hongkongers want to talk to Nicole Kidman.”