What Manny Jacinto Was Surprised to Learn About Nicole Kidman on the 'Nine Perfect Strangers' Set

When it came to meeting his Nine Perfect Strangers costar Nicole Kidman for the first time, Manny Jacinto admits he was nervous.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, the Good Place actor, 33, opens up about sharing the screen with Kidman in the new Hulu drama — and the one thing he was surprised to learn about the actress.

"When I first met her, she was actually really quite shy," Jacinto says. "She's actually very introverted, and that surprised me because I'm an introvert. I'm a very shy person and that gave me a lot of hope, if anything. If this lady can have such an incredible body of work as an introvert, maybe there's hope for other introverts out there. That was the biggest surprise, her shyness, but yet her willingness to be open."

And when Kidman — who plays wellness resort director Masha in the series — first met Jacinto?

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"I didn't really meet any of the people that were checking into Tranquillum House until the day we were shooting," Kidman, 54, says of her first day filming the show, which follows nine Australians from different walks of life as they visit a boutique health and wellness resort for a 10-day retreat that aims to heal and transform them. "So when I came in and we shot the first episode first, it was pretty much like meeting all of them for the first time, and I stayed in character."

"I was very much Masha, and the way I related to everyone was through my shop," she continues. "So I think everyone thought I was completely crazy, but I would walk up, I'd put my hand on their heart, I would hug them — I was thinking primarily in my Russian-American accent."

While the duo hadn't officially met before filming, Kidman says she had been a fan of Jacinto — who played Jason Mendoza on the NBC sitcom The Good Place for four seasons — for quite some time.

"My children love The Good Place, so it's been a part of our household," says Kidman. "But you know, with actors, I love the idea of having to or just being able to expand, do different things, do comedy, do drama, do everything that there is. Because I think we as actors get typecast, and a lot of times you say, 'I want to try something different and I can do something different.' And being an actor and being in the position of casting other actors, I never go off of what someone's previous work is."

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"I always ask, 'What are you bringing to the moment and what are you bringing to now?'" Kidman continues. "And Manny was perfect. It was so great to be able to work together. He still made me laugh, but in terms of being able to just find a completely different place to exist — and this show is almost like an altered state. I think, as you can get lost in it, it becomes more and more tricky."

The eight-episode miniseries was created by John Henry Butterworth and David E. Kelley, who was also responsible for the TV adaption of Moriarty's novel Big Little Lies. Bobby Cannavale, Luke Evans, Melvin Gregg, Regina Hall, Michal Shannon, Tiffany Boone, Grace Van Patten, Asher Keddie and Samara Weaving round out the cast.

The first three episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers are available now on Hulu.