Naomi Watts says BFF Nicole Kidman asked before making ‘The Perfect Couple’ with her ex

Naomi Watts has no problem with her best friend and her ex coupling up onscreen.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the Toronto International Film Festival for her appropriately titled new movie, The Friend, Watts says her decades-long BFF Nicole Kidman reached out to her first before working with her former partner of 11 years, Liev Schreiber, in Netflix thriller series, The Perfect Couple.

“We always check in, we’re besties,” Watts tells EW. “That was very kind of her to do that.”

Kidman and Schreiber play wealthy married couple Greer and Tag Winbury in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, based on Elin Hilderbrand’s popular book of the same name. The mystery series centers on the Winbury family, who have gathered in Nantucket for the wedding of son Benji (Billy Howle) and Amelia (Eve Hewson), but the nuptials are disrupted when one participant is found dead the morning of the ceremony and everyone is a suspect.

Watts tells EW she hasn’t had the chance to watch the new show just yet, but she can’t wait to binge it. “I’m desperate to [watch] because everyone is raving about it. It just launched, what, two days ago,” Watts says. “I’m very much looking forward to it. I have seen the trailer. It looks fantastic.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Watts and Schreiber began dating in 2005 after meeting at the Met Gala. They split in 2016, but have maintained a friendly connection since as they co-parent their two children, Sasha, 17, and Kai, 15.

“We’re doing things very differently. I’m pretty proud of us, corny as that may sound,” Watts previously told Net-a-Porter. “We’ve made it our absolute priority to be good and kind to each other and we’re absolutely committed to that.”

The friendly exes each got hitched to their new partners in 2023. Watts tied the knot with Morning Show actor Billy Crudup, while Schreiber married former pageant queen Taylor Neisen, with whom he shares 1-year-old daughter Hazel Bee.

In 2022, Watts shared an Instagram photo that showed the former couple and their children joined by Crudup and Neisen to celebrate Kai’s middle school graduation, including “#modernfamily” in the caption.

Watts and Kidman met when the Australian actresses where teenagers at an audition for a swimsuit commercial where they became fast friends while talking for hours in the waiting room before learning they had both missed out on the gig. “We covered everything, what movies we loved, what friends we had in common, our parents, schools, parties, boyfriends, teenage stuff,” Watts recalled of their first convo, in her speech at AFI Life Achievement Award Gala honoring Kidman earlier this year.

The Perfect Couple is streaming now on Netflix.

With reporting by Gerrad Hall.