Last December, the highly-anticipated biopic film Being The Ricardos saw a limited release
in theaters.
Days later, it hit Amazon's Prime Video streaming service.
The movie was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin and dealt with the often turbulent
relationship between I Love Lucy stars Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
Nicole Kidman was tapped to play Ball and Javier Bardem, whom you might remember as
assassin Anton Chigurh from 2007s No Country For Old Men, portrayed Arnaz.
While the film received mostly positive reviews, with most critics praising Kidman in particular
for her spirited portrayal of Ball, not everyone had glowing things to say about the accuracy
of the film's script.
Lucille Ball's daughter, despite being supportive of its production, had several BIG problems
with the film, which we'll get to in just a moment.
Regardless of those complaints, Being the Ricardos was nominated for three Academy Awards,
three Golden Globes, and a slew of other awards and accolades.
I Love Lucy and its stars practically defined what the sitcom was supposed to look like.
For their contributions to that iconic program, Desi and Lucille helped set the tone of the
entire 1950s.
The show has since gone down in history as one of the most influential programs to ever
hit the airwaves.
It's no surprise then that people would want to get a behind-the-scenes look at what made
it the landmark success story that it became.
Join Facts Verse as we detail what Being the Ricardos got right and what it got wrong.
And make sure you stick around to see what Lucille Ball's daughter had to say about the
authenticity of the movie that's been making headlines ever since it was first announced
nearly seven years ago.
Controversial From Day One
Long before its release Being the Ricardos was already making headlines.
Much of this hubbub had to do with public outcry on social media over Nicole Kidman
being cast to play Ball.
The criticism eventually got to be so intense that Kidman even considered dropping out of
the film before Aaron Sorkin took over as director.
Javier Bardem's selection to play Arnez likewise drew an equal share of controversy, as a Spanish
actor playing a Cuban-born star was viewed as being offensive to many netizens.
Even with all of the scandal that had rained down on the film so early on in its development,
Being the Ricardos was able to persevere and continue on in its production, largely because
of the support of Arnaz and Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, who received a production credit
on the film and has stood behind Sorkin's vision from the get-go.
But even Lucie Arnaz wasn't completely sold on all of Sorkin's directorial and writing
choices.
One thing in particular that she took issue with was his decision to depict three especially
defining moments in her parent's relationship as taking place during the same production
week.
In the film, Ball was depicted as finding out that she was pregnant for the second time
right around the same period that the gossip rags of the day started running stories detailing
Arnaz's infidelity.
To top all that off, Lucille is also shown to be accused of being a communist.
While all of these things actually happened, they didn't within the same 7-day window as
the film presents them to have happened.
Another thing that Lucie Arnaz found to be inaccurate was the way in which Sorkin's film
presented Ball's intense sense of work ethic.
Lucie remembers how her parent's passionate, albeit troubled relationship, and its inevitable
breakdown, was only half the story of what really was going on when the cameras weren't
rolling.
Early in their careers, Ball and Arnaz have essentially contracted slaves to their respective
studios.
Fortunately, they managed to eventually free themselves of the constraints of the studio
system and achieved another shot at stardom when they actively embraced the then-new medium
of TV.
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Keep watching to see a few other ways that Being the Ricardos captured the reality of
what was happening behind the scenes of I Love Lucy and a few other ways where it fell
short.
Lucille Ball – The Queen of B Movies?
During one particularly memorable scene in Being the Ricardos, Lucille says something
that seems to imply that she's been active in show business since she was a child, but
that's not necessarily what really happened.
While she had aspirations of being an actress since she was a teen, Ball didn't actually
show up in Tinsel Town until she was already in her 20s.
In 1933, she landed her first role playing one of the Goldwyn Girls in Roman Scandals.
Before that, when she was 17, she had for a short spell attended the same drama school
in New York City as Bette Davis, although Ball would later describe that experience
as being rather miserable.
After being told that she didn't have what it took to be an actress, Ball modeled for
fashion legend Hattie Carnegie who worked with stars like Gloria Swanson, Joan Bennett,
and Joan Crawford.
In the process, she picked up a few valuable pointers that would later come in handy once
she started acting.
In Being the Ricardos, Kidman portrayed Ball as someone that had been typecast early in
her career as being the 'Queen of the B's' – or low-budget films that lacked substance.
To be fair, this was a situation that the real Ball did actually go through early on
in her acting career.
Fortunately, however, once she had managed to break away from the studios that tied her
down to a series of lackluster features, she was eventually able to shine in her element
once she made the jump to television.
It was on TV that she really got to show off her physical comedy chops.
Lucie Arnaz Wanted Scenes Removed The Film
Talking to the Hollywood Reporter, Ball's daughter revealed that after reading Being
the Ricardo's script, there were several scenes that she wanted to be scrapped because they
'never happened'.
Fortunately, one of these scenes was never shot because the day that it was supposed
to be filmed, the sprinklers went off and destroyed everything on the set.
We already mentioned how Arnaz found Sorkin's choice to cram everything into a single week
to be problematic, but she also found some of the flashback scenes to be lacking.
Granted, she acknowledges that the director took some creative license to make it all
work.
One thing that she praised Sorkin for was the script's dialogue and how her father's
treatment of her mother was depicted.
At the end of the day, Lucie said that she believed that the depictions of her parents
were 'accurate composites'.
She also praised his casting choices – despite the fact that the people of the internet seemed
to having nothing nice to say about them.
Talking about Kidman, Arnaz had extra praise to give her.
On the two days that she was able to visit the film's set during its filming, she got
to watch Kidman play her mother in several 1930s and 40s set flashback sequences.
Arnaz said that Kidman was able to accurately capture what her mother was really like before
she had become 'Lucy of Lucy Ricardo Fame'.
She went on to say that the actress had poise and class while stepping into the role.
How Lucille and Desi Met
When researching how much of Being the Ricardos was true, we learned that Ball had met the
Cuban bandleader in 1940 while filming an adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart Broadway
musical Too Many Girls.
The day after they met, Ball and Arnaz had already developed a very strong connection
with each other.
Less than a year later, they eloped.
In the film, their relationship is indeed depicted as starting in such a way, although
it's only briefly mentioned.
Later in the film, it's suggested that Ball had only agreed to star in I Love Lucy if
her husband could be her co-star.
That's another thing Being the Ricardos got right.
Back during those days, the network brass and sponsors were pretty xenophobic, which
made them pretty leery to get behind a program that presented an interracial marriage.
This was the 1950s we're talking about, after all.
After being told that the public would never believe that she was married to Arnaz, Lucille
and Desi set out on a cross-country tour performing a vaudeville-style show.
The tour was so successful and the public was so accepting of the two that CBS eventually
agreed to greenlight the show.
Ball and Arnaz became the first interracial couple to appear on television.
They also shared the first interracial kiss to ever air in America.
Lucille Ball Was The First Pregnant Woman On TV
After watching Being the Ricardos, you might be wondering if Ball really was the first
woman to appear pregnant on Television.
That would be yet another thing that the film got right.
When Lucille became pregnant with her second child in 1952, her pregnancy would be woven
into the plotline of I Love Lucy.
This would mark the first time in television history that a woman would appear pregnant
on one of the major networks.
After consulting the network censors and several church leaders, the show was only allowed
to use the phrase 'expecting' rather than the word 'pregnant' which at the time was
considered to be too risque for television.
Desi Really Did Warm Up The Audience Before Each Episode
I Love Lucy was shot before a live studio audience of about 300 or so people.
Most attendees were tourists visiting Hollywood hoping to get a chance to see a taping of
one of their favorite shows.
Just as depicted in the film, Desi Arnaz really would serve as an emcee of sorts in order
to warm up the crowd.
Of course, this also involved introducing the I Love Lucy cast to the studio audience.
Outro
A couple other things that Being the Ricardos got right include how Ball really was accused
of being a communist in 1953 and Desi Arnaz's rampant infidelity.
Arnaz was a well-known womanizer who took every chance he could get to sleep around.
Eventually, this led to his and Ball's marriage failing.
They eventually divorced in 1960, but even before that, Lucille had filed for divorce
in 1944, although she never followed through with it.
Can you think of any other details of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's life that Being the
Ricardos accurately presented?
And can you think of any that the film got dead wrong?
Let us know in the comments.
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