Above : Bruna Papandrea and Liane Moriarty in conversation
On the Opera House Concert Hall stage were two chairs and two genuine Australian women: one an Australian writer and the other an Australian Hollywood producer. They were Liane Moriarty and Bruna Papandrea.
Liane Moriarty is Australia’s most internationally commercially successful living author. With a catalogue of 10 published books, excluding her children’s books, and multiple television adaptations of her work, including the internationally successful first season of Big Little Lies in 2017, Moriarty has established herself as one of Australia’s most successful authors.
This one-night-only talk in the Concert Hall was the launch of the long-awaited sequel to Big Little Lies, BIG LITTLE TRUTHS. More than a thousand enthusiastic, predominantly female fans were treated to an entertaining conversation between writer and producer. The discussion illuminated the tension between an author’s intentions for her characters and storyline and the narrative of her writing, as well as the different expectations and processes that emerge after a book’s film and television rights have been optioned for adaptation by a Hollywood production company.
Bruna Papandrea is Australian-born and now produces television series in Hollywood. She first optioned the unpublished manuscript written by Liane Moriarty in 2014. From there, a telephone call to Nicole Kidman and the subsequent involvement of Reese Witherspoon led to the television series that became an international success.
Bruna Papandrea explained her excitement when reading the then-unpublished manuscript, which featured “an ensemble of women and (it felt like) all my Christmases had come at once”.
A funny and friendly conversation ensued, detailing the tensions and processes involved in taking a firmly authentic Australian fictional story and turning it into a successful Hollywood production. It was a fascinating exploration of the differing values and tensions between these artistic mediums and endeavours, as well as the different processes involved in writing a novel and adapting it into a television series.
Bruna, the Australian Hollywood producer, and Liane, the Australian author, revealed just how difficult it can be for production companies that have optioned the rights to get books made.
Big Little Lies, written in 2014, made the New York Times bestseller list, and requests for a sequel from Moriarty became increasingly amplified.
In the interim, she met the producers’ request and wrote a 50,000-word treatment that provided the basis for the second season of Big Little Lies.
A new character in the second television series had her favourite actor, Meryl Streep, cast in the role. The newly created character, written specifically for Streep, was named Mary Louise — which is actually Meryl Streep’s birth name.
However, Moriarty was true to her nature as a writer and wanted to wait until her own children, who were youngsters when she wrote the first book, had evolved into the teenagers she chose to write about in the second book. Twelve years after the original book, Liane is now parenting teenagers. And BIG LITTLE TRUTHS has become a reality.
BIG LITTLE TRUTHS is set back in its original location, the fictional Pirriwee in Australia, and follows on from the book, not the television series adaptation. As Moriarty says, the television series doesn’t have to be true to the books. But the books stand unchanged after being published.
Charming, amicable and genuine, and seemingly unaffected by being a New York Times bestselling author, Liane discussed her writing process and reasoning. She revealed herself as a writer who is sensitive to her audience.
The character of Madeleine in the original book was brunette. However, Madeleine, played by Reese Witherspoon, is blonde. Moriarty therefore avoids hair-colour references for this character in the sequel, allowing audiences to retain their own reference point for the different evolution of the character.
Renata, a character developed further in the television series by Laura Dern, has become a more central character. The books remain firmly set in Australia, despite the television series being adapted to California. Moriarty is firm in her commitment that her books “will always be set in Australia”.
Moriarty believes readers can view the book and characters for themselves. She is conscious that audiences will bring their experience of the television characters with them when reading the book.
During the audience question-and-answer opportunity, Moriarty explained the origins of her writing. Her father would commission stories from her and her sister, Jaclyn Moriarty, and would pay each of them $1 for a book of stories.
Moriarty went on to write advertising copy after obtaining her marketing degree from Macquarie University.
When her sister Jaclyn Moriarty’s book was accepted for publication, Liane explained how happy and pleased she was for her sister — but also how she was filled with rage at herself for not having written her own.
She promptly wrote a children’s book, which was rejected. She then wrote Three Wishes, which was accepted and published. There was a ripple effect from her sister’s publication in the launching of Liane’s own career.
Moriarty was also applauded for how she addressed the issue of domestic violence in Big Little Lies, through accurate research and by getting the balance right alongside the humour in her writing. It was an issue she acknowledged that she took very seriously in writing the book.
A high school writing teacher asked a question about advice for younger writers: what truly makes a good story?
Moriarty explained that she doesn’t get too caught up in the “show, don’t tell” rule. Writing stories should be a fun thing. Her advice was to write anything at all for the next five minutes. Write for yourself and then read it as though your worst enemy is reading it. Have fun with storytelling, rather than worrying about the rules. Tell children to break the rules.
Moriarty also explored how, in her writing process, she has never planned out a book with an outline or synopsis, but instead strives for a well-rounded narrative.
As Moriarty advises readers, you don’t have to have read the first book, Big Little Lies, to understand the sequel, BIG LITTLE TRUTHS. It stands alone as a book. So, no, you don’t need to read the original. But you’ll want to…
BIG LITTLE TRUTHS is now available in bookshops and online.
