How This Malibu Beach House Came To Star In HBO's Big Little Lies

The journey of Madeline Martha Mackenzie, Reese Witherspoon's character in Big Little Lies, is all about the constant pursuit of perfection. She's obsessed with maintaining the right balance between creative work and motherhood, and she's always keeping tabs on how well the other women in her community are doing at cultivating their own images of perfection. As someone who is so preoccupied with being the ideal woman with an ideal family, it's only fitting that Madeline lives in a truly idyllic home. That house that the Big Little Lies location scouts landed on to complete the Mackenzies' perfect-seeming life is actually located in Malibu and has been featured in quite a few TV shows.

House Beautiful recently reported that the actual house where Reese Witherspoon's character lives in the hit HBO drama is located at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu and is currently owned and listed by Malibu Luxury Vacation Homes. According to Stacy Clunies-Ross who runs the Malibu-based real estate agency, the home's rep was approached before production of the show's first season began. Yep, the house has its own representation. "There are multiple location services in Los Angeles and Malibu, and they represent a lot of the houses in Malibu. Our house has been represented for a very long time," Clunies-Ross explains. "A location scout will go to a location company and say, 'This is what I want. I want something that looks like Carmel or looks like Monterey and is on the beach...'

Obviously, the seven-bedroom home fit the bill and was even able to convince viewers it really was located in Monterey. 30760 Broad Beach Road isn't a one-trick pony, however. Clunies-Ross tells us that the home has been "working" for the past 30 years. During that time, it was featured as Miley Cyrus' home on Hannah Montana, which actually was set in Malibu, and it was Dick Van Dyke's house in the CBS series Diagnosis: Murder, which ran from 1993 to 2001. Additionally, it's been the location for various commercials and catalog shoots, including for Pottery Barn and Frontgate. "It works a lot," the realtor says.

The 6,000 square-foot home isn't the only famous house available through Malibu Luxury Vacations Homes. In addition to 30760 Broad Beach Road, there's a smaller, more contemporary house down the beach that's just as successful in the location business. This five-bedroom home at 30708 Pacific Coast Highway was featured in The O.C., is in commercials, and is the location for plenty of celebrity photo shoots for People and other magazines. Because it isn't as large as the other home, however, it's inside doesn't get as much work in film and television. "It's about half the size so it's more difficult to film in. It is used a lot for the beach because the beach is laid out a bit differently. The beach rolls right out into the ocean, whereas the other house has rocks in front of it," Clunies-Ross shares.

Travelers looking to enjoy the one part of Madeline Mackenzie's life that actually is as perfect as it looks from the outside can rent the Big Little Lies house through Malibu Luxury Vacation Homes for $3,000 to $5,000 a night. If that's too steep for you, the other famous beach house also available for rent by the real estate company for $1,000-$3,000 a night. If that still isn't an option with your less-than-perfect bank account balance, you can at least take a virtual tour of 30760 Broad Beach Road ahead.