HBO won the rights for the series in a bidding war against Netflix.
Alexander Skarsgård said that the therapy sessions between Perry and Celeste were filmed without rehearsal, and he appreciated that, since accordingly he and Nicole Kidman had genuine tension and awkwardness having to read the other's emotions in the scene.
Shailene Woodley was seriously thinking of quitting acting and had been refusing scripts for a year before this one came her way and she fell in love with the character of Jane. A phone call of encouragement from her friend and co-star Laura Dern solidified her decision to take the role.
Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon each earn $1 million an episode for the sequel series. That's a significant bump from the reported range of $250,000 to $350,000 the pair made per episode during season one. That was just for their acting duties, and does not include the money the pair makes as producers.
In order to work on the first season, Reese Witherspoon backed out of Petit format (2017), while Nicole Kidman turned down a part in Wonder Woman (2017), both because of scheduling conflicts.