Kidman and Amazon have not returned multiple requests for comment about how the series will navigate the new political challenges of Hong Kong,where activists,journalists and politicians have been imprisoned for dissent.
The Hollywood star featured on the cover ofMarie Claire Australiaover the weekend as her production company,Blossom Films,which owns the rights toExpats, went into a publicity blitz for the release of a separate series on American streaming service Hulu,Nine Perfect Strangers.
“What does she have to say to my comrades thrown[in] jail?,” said exiled Hong Kong MP Ted Hui,who had to flee the city while on bail and now lives in Australia.
“How insensitive can she be? A lot of people have to flee from Hong Kong,and probably they won’t be able to go back home. But she can travel freely from Australia to Hong Kong,and continue her work and go shopping as if nothing has happened.”
Hui,who is part of a group of exiled MPs lobbying for tougher international measures to be taken against the Hong Kong government,said he respected Kidman’s work,but he did not think it was the time “for anyone to be cooperating with the regime as business as usual”. Hui urged her to talk to him and other pro-democracy leaders.
The book the series is based on,The Expatriates,was published before millions of locals took to the streets to protest Beijing’s rising influence in 2019. It focuses on the well-heeled lives of the city’s expats.