Nicole Kidman’s Masha is the self-help spider at the center of Nine Perfect Strangers’ web, and season 2 unravels several new strands of connection to her murky past. The new set of episodes takes place in Zauberwald, a German clinic run by Helena (Lena Olin), the woman whose methods once saved Masha’s life – and inspired her sometimes concerning methods of saving others. Now that Helena’s business is in trouble, she and Martin (Lucas Englander) are the ones in need of Masha’s help, even if they don’t always approve of how she gives it.

Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 introduces a new group of guests who seek revolutionary treatment. Peter and David (Mark Strong) are in dire need of family bonding, but David seems more interested in his mysterious history with Masha than in his son. Wolfie (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) and Tina (King Princess) are a couple on the rocks, though neither can agree on which rocks landed them there. Other patients include Brian (The White Lotus’ Murray Bartlett), a television host whose lack of anger management landed him in hot water, and Agnes (Dolly de Leon), a nun wrestling with her loss of faith.

ScreenRant interviewed the stars of Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 about what brought each of them to Zauberwald. Olin, Englander, and Strong discussed how their respective relationships with Masha could help or harm their healing journeys, while de Leon, Sellers, and King Princess offered further insight into their crises of love and faith.

Lena Olin & Lucas Englander Explain Helena & Martin’s Complicated Feelings For Masha

“If You're Able To Really Help Someone, You Love That Person”

ScreenRant: Helena has a history with Masha, who in fact credits you with her life and career. How different is the Masha we’re dealing with now from the one Helena knew 10 years ago?

Lena Olin: I think that when Helena understands where Marsha is coming from and the trauma she's been through, it's her perfect project to try and help her. And I think if you really help someone - if you're able to really help someone - that makes you love that person. And if you've been helped by someone, you really love that person.

They have this very strong, ionate, very loving relationship, but it's very tense at the same time. It's not going exactly the way Helena wants her to go, and that's always complicated for a strong-willed person. That's what makes it interesting to play.

ScreenRant: Speaking of that complicated tension, Martin is the one who brings Masha to the retreat, but tension is simmering between them from the start. What is that push and pull like to play?

Lucas Englander: It was a lot of fun to play because we had to figure out what we really want from each other and how we get that. It's about which character is going to win a scene, in a certain way. It's so nice to be able to feel that really you have a specific goal; that you can't go halfway, and if you go halfway, you'll feel that pain of failing again.

I think that built up a frustration in Martin of, "How can I attain my goal?" He needs to find that perspective shift of, "How do I get there?" Maybe it's not going to be his initial approach.

ScreenRant: Lena, you mentioned how helping people makes you love them. But the tables have kind of turned between Helena and Masha, and now you are the one who needs her help. How does Helena feel about Masha's methods now?

Lena Olin: Really, it's Helena's methods that Marsha is taking too far, and I think that's the beauty and fascination with strong relationships. When you have someone who is like your child, you want to inspire them, and you want to push them. Then they become so strong, and I love that.

I see [Masha as] our daughter, and she's extremely strong. It's exactly what you want, and at the same time, it's so frustrating. You want them to do what you want, because you think you know so much. And then they go their own way, and they will just surprise and fascinate you, which is amazing.

Why Each Guest Comes To See Masha, Explained By Nine Perfect Strangers Cast

“She's So Desperate That She's Even Willing To Go Through A Therapy That's Very Revolutionary”

ScreenRant: Why is Masha's retreat the answer to Agnes' crisis of faith?

Dolly De Leon: When she enters the treatment center, she doesn't really know that it's the answer to her problem. She's been looking everywhere for a solution, and she just came to it because she got an invitation from Masha. So, she's hopeful that she's going to get an answer there.

But I think that Agnes is at that space where she's really open to finding some kind of resolution for her problem, and she's so desperate that she's even willing to go through a kind of therapy that's very revolutionary.

ScreenRant: Murray, Brian is a fascinating cross between Mr. Rogers and Anger from Inside Out 2. How does he navigate that line, and how did you find that balance? Is he always controlling that rage until he can't?

Murray Bartlett: Yeah, I think that kind of rage bubbles up in ways that sometimes we can't control, so it takes a lot for him to be pushed to really unleash it. But it was fascinating.

One of the things that I love about this character, and all these characters, is that I get to play Brian being broken. I get to play him being on top of his world when he was the kids' TV show host, and I get to play him through all the stages of processing what he's going through. I think I tried to find the levels of that rage, when it was appropriate and inappropriate to let it out, and play with finding an interesting way of showing.

The arc of the character was beautifully written in that way, but that's the joy of being an actor. Playing with, "Where are there moments of vulnerability?" Where are the surprising moments where you're like, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that?" I'm trying to pin those down and play with them.

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ScreenRant: Mark, David ostensibly comes to spend time with his son, but he seems to have some history with Masha. Who are they to each other?

Mark Strong: When he turns up, he thinks that this isn't for him. Therapy's not anything he's going to be seduced by. His son thinks he's arrived there to work with him, but you realize that he has actually come to check Masha out because she's now become famous. She's been on the cover of Time Magazine, and he wants to kind of see what's going on because they have history. That's what you find out as the season progresses.

ScreenRant: Mark, between this, Dune: Prophecy, and The Penguin, you're no stranger to playing the heads of mysteriously powerful families. Do you put work into crafting that aura or does it come naturally?

Mark Strong: Well, it's hilarious because what happens is that over the 35 years that I think I've been doing this, the parts change. I've been through bad guys, I've been through spies, I've been through policemen - I've done all of that kind of thing, and now it seems that I've landed in a place where I play the guy that knows everything or has everything or controls everything. That seems to be the issue. It's great fun; it's great being a billionaire. I get to wear some very nice clothes for a start.

Maisie Richardson-Sellers & King Princess Break Down Wolfie & Tina’s Relationship Drama

“I Don't Think She Knows What ion Is Anymore”

King Princess & Masie Richardson-Sellers in Nine Perfect Strangers season 2

ScreenRant: Wolfie wants to work things out with Tina, but they seem to have different ideas about what the relationship needs. What is the issue from your perspective, Maisie?

Maisie Richardson-Sellers: From my perspective, it's a lack of communication. They're both so lost in their own perspectives that they're actually failing to talk and share, and instead they're just being resentful.

Tina, I think, has been quite cruel in the way she treats Wolfie, and Wolfie is just so blindsided by her one mission to get Tina back on track that she can't see the struggles Tina's going through. So, it's a lack of communication, a lack of mutual respect, and a lack of just trusting themselves in the relationship.

ScreenRant: Tina is somewhat less willing to participate in the healing. From Tina’s perspective, what is the issue in the relationship with Wolfie?

King Princess: Maisie and I love this because we've been doing interviews, and our opinion is still so different. I think from Tina's perspective, she is in this place of anger and fear and disillusionment with her own life. I think that she's lost. I don't think she's had fun in a while; I don't think she knows what fun is. I don't think she knows what ion is anymore. I think she lost it along the way, and I think Woolie's attempt at pulling her out of it feels like forced surgery or something.

It's like she's almost happy in her misery, and Wolfie is just clawing and trying to get her to be fixed. There's a part of Tina that believes, maybe, that she wants to help. But I think there's a part of her that believes that, just like most people in Tina's life, Wolfie wants her to succeed for Wolfie and not for Tina. Do you know what I mean? It's a bit more transactional than it should be in love.

Nine Perfect Strangers Cast Share Some Of Their Favorite Season 2 Arcs

“When You Are Going Through Different Stages Of Life, You Approach Different Problems”

ScreenRant: While your characters are getting their treatment, they also get to observe the lives of others and the crises that they're going through. Was there one story this season that really tugged at your heartstrings?

Lucas Englander: So many because everybody has such a different story, and these different stories are relatable. I come from a family where illness has been a part of my upbringing, so seeing some of the characters go through that really touched me. Aras [Aydin]'s story touched me.

All the stories: Dolly's, Maisie's, Lena's, everybody's. I think that's what to me makes this series so moving. Because life is long, hopefully, and when you are going through different stages of life, you approach different problems. This series shows different problems and maybe gives some solutions for how to find peace with them.

Maisie Richardson-Sellers: I think it's Agnes, Dolly's character, because we're all reckoning with each other but she's reckoning with God. That's such a huge existential crisis that she's going through, and when you finally get the flashback and see what she's been through, it's so heartbreaking.

Dolly is such a fierce, powerful actor, so just by being around her and observing her, I learned so much both as Maisie and as Wolfie.

Check out our interview with Christine Baranski, Annie Murphy, and Aras Aydin.

The first two episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers season 2 are streaming on Hulu, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.

Source: Screen Rant Plus

Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2 official poster

Your Rating

Nine Perfect Strangers
7/10
Release Date
2021 - 2021-00-00
Showrunner
David E. Kelley
Directors
Jonathan Levine

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming
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Writers
David E. Kelley