How insensitive can she be Exiled Hongkongers want to talk to Nicole Kidman

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Singapore: Exiled Hong Kong MPs have urged Australian actor Nicole Kidman to talk to them about the consequences of filming her new series Expats in the city, warning she appeared to be collaborating with Beijing at the same time as thousands of Hongkongers feared returning to their homes.

The 54-year-old came under fire from artists and residents last week after being granted a quarantine exemption by the Hong Kong government to begin filming the Amazon Prime series about the daily lives of the three privileged foreign women living in the former British colony.

Nicole Kidman received a rare quarantine exemption from the Hong Kong government to fly into the city last week to begin filming ExpatsCredit:Bloomberg, AP

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 of Marie Claire Australia over the weekend as her production company, Blossom Films, which owns the rights to Expats, 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 she can be? A lot of people have to flee and have to move 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.”

Exiled Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui. Credit:

Hui, who is part of a group of exiled MPs and advocates lobbying Australia and Europe to put pressure on the Hong Kong government over human rights, said while he respected her work he did not think it was the time “for anyone to be cooperating, or collaborating with the regime as a business as usual”. He urged her to talk to him and other pro-democracy leaders.

The book the series is based on, The Expatriates, was published before millions took to the streets to protest Beijing’s rising influence in 2019, and its ensuing security crackdown. It focuses on the well-heeled lives of the city’s expats.

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“It’s an endorsement of the Hong Kong situation that says it’s okay, people can live on,” said Hui. “It is not. People are in pain or in despair.”

Beijing put an end to more than 18 months of political turmoil in Hong Kong by implementing national security laws last year shutting down media companies, arresting artists and forcing thousands of pro-democracy supporters into exile.

Hong Kong Legislative Councillor Priscilla Leung said, “Nicole Kidman’s exemption case is not just about politics, it involves the health security issue and is a matter of unfairness”.

The decision to give Kidman a quarantine exemption has triggered a further outcry in Hong Kong where the government has maintained a COVID-zero strategy and mandated quarantine of up to 21 days for incoming travellers.

“This is all about optics,” said John Walker, the chair of Eastpoint Partners, a business consultancy operating between Hong Kong, Seoul and Australia. “A huge reminder of no matter how much you build businesses and contribute to Australia and other countries it is about perception, not outcomes.”

The American and European chambers of commerce are becoming increasingly exasperated by the tough travel restrictions in Hong Kong, which resemble the COVID-zero strategy on the Chinese mainland.

“It has reached a boiling point,” Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong told The Washington Post on Friday. “Watching the rest of the world think forward while Hong Kong doesn’t budge and becomes more draconian is deeply frustrating and, for some people, the last straw.”

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce Edward Yau on Monday drew a comparison with Kidman and health workers, scientists and air-crews who had been let in at the start of the pandemic.

“We are making a small exemption to a handful of people who need to come in to do the production,” he told Bloomberg.

Australian actor Nicole Kidman acts during the filming of a scene for the Amazon Prime series “Expats” in Hong Kong on Monday. She was spotted at a COS shop last week.Credit:Reuters

“Our job is to make sure we have good connection with the wider world, provided that such exemptions are being made in good faith and also with sufficient safeguards.”

Yau defended Kidman who was still under some restrictions when she was spotted shopping at popular retailer COS two days after landing.

“I have personally checked, there are certain itineraries that are part of the costume fitting,” he said.

Eryk Bagshaw is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

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