Nine Perfect Strangers’ Samara Weaving on her anxieties, comedic acting and catching bugs

Glamorous Australian star Samara Weaving is one of the illustrious stars of a splashy new TV series – and here she opens about her anxieties on set.

No one puts more pressure on herself than Samara Weaving.

The Australian actor has openly spoken about having anxiety but in her new project, the splashy, star-studded miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, she was able to project her anxieties onto her “nervous, twitchy” character Jessica.

Jessica is one of nine guests who come together at a wellness resort looking to be healed of their emotional traumas and insecurities. An Instagram influencer, Jessica initially comes across as shallow and materialistic, but Weaving knew the character was going to offer an intriguing arc.

“I’d read the book [the series is adapted from], so I had an idea of her,” Weaving tells news.com.au over zoom from her usual base of Los Angeles.

“I think the insight that [author] Liane Moriarty gives was really interesting and provoking, about body issues and social media, and what it is to make those snap judgments about women.

“David E. Kelley wrote the script and changed her a little bit. In the show, she has pretty bad body dysmorphia, so it’s a little darker than the book. That was really eye-opening to research.

“Especially with mental illness or something as delicate as that, I want to make sure that I’ve done the due diligence of representing people have that and understand it and come from a place of empathy and knowledge.”

Samara Weaving is open about her issues with anxiety. (Photo by: Vince Valitutti/Hulu)

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Straddling a line between sombre drama and absurd comedy, Nine Perfect Strangers often uses dark humour to offset the more serious elements of the story. The character of Jessica and her husband Ben are often called upon to lighten up the vibe.

For Weaving, who was building a steady catalogue of horror hits including the irreverent and sassy Ready or Not, before expanding her into other genres including playing Alex Winter’s daughter in last year’s Bill & Ted sequel, comedy doesn’t come easily to her.

“It’s so hard,” she explains of the rhythm and pacing required of comedic acting. “People like Melvin [Gregg, her scene partner in Nine Perfect Strangers], it comes so naturally to him. I’m so envious of people like that.

“I’m up all night, trying to think of alternate jokes and trying to figure out the maths of the joke and how I could do it and make it funnier. People like Melvin rock up and they’re free and loose.

“I learnt a lot from Melvin on that, of how to improvise and have fun with it and not be so in my head.”

Weaving admits to being the kind of person who’s always up the night before, thinking about the next day’s scenes.

“I’m a nervous wreck right up until they say ‘action’. I’m anxious all the time. And then it’s not my natural voice so learning that accent and putting it on top of words that aren’t mine. I really have to form myself into this character.

“If it’s even a little bit off, I can tell it’s not working. I put too much pressure on myself, I need to calm down.”

Weaving said she learnt to be loose in a scene from co-star Melvin Gregg. (Photo by: Vince Valitutti/Hulu)

Even now, so close to the premiere of Nine Perfect Strangers, Weaving is more nervous than excited about audiences finally getting to see the series that was filmed in NSW’s Northern Rivers this time last year.

“I always get a bit nervous because it’s kind of a vulnerable position [to be in]. I hope people like it, but they might not. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst,” she confesses.

Weaving has little to worry about it. The character-driven story is the perfect canvas for its illustrious cast which includes Hollywood talent including Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Luke Evans, Michael Shannon, Regina Hall and Bobby Cannavale.

Watching the veterans on set, for the younger cast including Weaving, The Good Place’s Manny Jacinto, Maniac’s Grace Van Patten, Hunters’ Tiffany Boone and Snowfall’s Gregg, it was practically a masterclass in acting.

“Just watching them, you learn so much,” Weaving says. “That’s how I’ve learnt to act. I didn’t go to school for it. I have a drama coach, but I’ve really learnt on the job. I’ve watched other people and see how they do different things.”

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Samara Weaving got her big break on Home and Away, where she played Indi for three years. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Like so many young Australian actors who would go on to cement themselves in Hollywood, Weaving got her big break on Home and Away when she was 17 years old, serving three years on the soap before packing her bags for LA.

A wide-eyed and open performer, there she landed a main role in SMILF and a supporting part in the acclaimed albeit divisive Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Soon she’ll be walking the red carpet with co-stars Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie on Oscar winner Damien Chazelle’s new movie Babylon.

So, she’s hardly a slouch in the drama department.

Even though Weaving says her anxiety “was so high all the time” – she does daily yoga and meditation, and rewatches sitcoms such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Friends, Bob Burgers and New Girl to unwind – she adds Nine Perfect Strangers’ production wasn’t that stressful and she actually had a fun experience.

Weaving sharing a scene with Nicole Kidman in Nine Perfect Strangers. (Photo by: Vince Valitutti/Hulu)

She was in Los Angeles last year when the offer came through and like most of the cast, she flew to Australia under covid-19 conditions and quarantined in the same place for two weeks before production – but they were all confined to their own rooms.

“So, we could kind of see each other on the balconies, little glimpses – ‘Is that Melissa down the hall, is that Grace across the way?,” she shares.

“People were sending each other things. It was someone’s birthday during that quarantine and they were sent champagne. And we’d get random treats and wonder, ‘Who is this from?’.”

It was a surreal experience that led to some distanced bonding. Once they were all released, she and the younger cast in particular made the most of the four months shooting in paradise, in the Byron Bay hinterland.

“Me, Grace, Tiffany and Manny, we were all on the same street in Byron and we would have house parties. We’d go from house to house to house, we’d all go to the beach together, so that was really fun. It felt like summer camp.”

As the Australian in her cadre, she would explain local slang to the Americans and Canadians and was put in charge of getting all the spiders – “I was the bug catcher”.

“And one day, there was a goanna that walked up to our house, and everyone was like ‘What the hell is that?!’ and I had to explain to them it was fine.”

Nine Perfect Strangers starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, August 20

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Originally published as Nine Perfect Strangers’ Samara Weaving on her anxieties, comedic acting and catching bugs