Nicole Kidman has skipped hotel quarantine in Hong Kong, where she’s currently filming a new TV series.
The 54-year-old actress is understood to have travelled from Sydney to Hong Kong last week and was seen out shopping and filming in the city, according to news site HK01.
Her presence raised questions, as current restrictions require travellers and even returning residents to undergo strict quarantine.
Those returning from “high risk” locations are required to spend a mandatory 21 days in designated quarantine hotels, even if they’ve been vaccinated.
Nicole Kidman has faced critiscism for skipping hotel quarantine in Hong Kong.
(Getty)Australia is currently classified as “medium risk” and travellers from Down Under are required to quarantine for 14 days.
So how did Nicole make it past the quarantine requirements?
It’s understood she received an exemption from the Hong Kong government, which has granted a number of international film cast and crew quarantine exemptions.
Though Nicole’s name hasn’t been mentioned directly, foreign film personnel have been allowed to skip quarantine for “the purpose of performing designated professional work”, according to the government.
It called the project part of the “necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy.”
The Australian actress is reportedly in town to film a new Amazon series called The Expats, HK01 claimed.
According to Hong Kong newspaper The Standard, Nicole flew in on a private jet, and reports from Bloomberg claim she’s staying in a mansion that costs $83,500 per month to rent.
Now there has been an outpouring of criticism for the mother-of-four and other movie stars travelling to Hong Kong and avoiding COVID-19 restrictions in a time of local crisis.
Hong Kong locals stranded overseas by the pandemic are struggling to get home to their families, as flights are in limited supply.
Those who do get back into the country then face long days in costly hotel quarantine before they can be reunited with loved ones.
With that in mind, many Hong Kong nationals are frustrated to see film personnel and stars like Nicole get into the country with exemptions.
“How is Nicole Kidman shooting a series about expats in HK ‘necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy’?” one person wrote on Twitter.
“What about everyone else coming back or into HK who had to endure the strict 21-day mandatory quarantine? What makes her entitled to preferential treatment?”
Meanwhile, local political shifts have led to a crackdown on free speech and political activity for locals living in Hong Kong.
Many have voiced their concern about western film giants like Amazon funding glitzy portrayals of the city in movies and TV shows while the reality is very different.
One Twitter user wrote: “To be frank I care less about the (obviously hypocritical) quarantine exceptions being given to film crews in HK than I do with the fact that Amazon Prime is currently developing two different shows whitewashing the city’s free fall into authoritarianism.”
In recent years, there have been protests across Hong Kong against China encroaching on the city’s political freedoms.
Last year, a divisive national security law was passed in Beijing and dozens of pro-democracy activists and lawmakers were arrested in Hong Kong in a move that caused shockwaves.
