Reese Witherspoon was tired of working in a man’s world.

“So often I’m the only woman on a set full of men,” the Oscar winner tells PEOPLE.

But through her production company Pacific Standard, the actress is now bringing Liane Moriarty’s female-driven novel Big Little Lies to HBO as a seven-part whodunit drama with a healthy dose of acerbic humor.

“It became this really interesting group of women whose work I’d always loved,” Witherspoon, 40, says of enlisting Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley and Zoë Kravitz to star alongside her in the limited series, which explores themes of domestic violence, marriage and motherhood.

“Getting to work with them every day was a pleasure,” she says. “I learned so much from each of them.”

Big Little Lies is a 7-episode series and premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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