Photos have emerged of Nicole Kidman dressed up on set as Lucille Ball in the upcoming
biopic Being the Ricardos from writer and director Aaron Sorkin.
Nicole has been cast alongside Javier Bardem’s Desi Arnaz, and the movie is set to explore
a week in the life of the famous couple while filming their hit show I Love Lucy.
The real-life couple’s children are serving as executive producers on the film, and daughter
Lucie has recently shared how she feels about Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of her mother.
Join Facts Verse as Lucille Ball’s daughter finally speaks out on Nicole Kidman.
I Love Lucy fans were incredibly excited when it was announced that famed writer and director
Aaron Sorkin was set to make a biopic of the show’s famous creators and stars, Lucille
Ball and Desi Arnaz.
The movie, titled Being the Ricardos, is set to follow the real-life couple during a week
of filming their hit show.
The movie is going to have an emphasis on the stars’ real-life marriage, which was
famously mirrored in their on-screen relationship.
Their marriage was filled with controversies and drama, resulting in the two divorcing
soon after the show came to an end.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had two children.
Their first child, daughter Lucie, was born while the couple was developing I Love Lucy.
Their second child, son Desi Jr., was born during the show’s production.
Famously, Lucille incorporated her real-life pregnancy with Desi Jr. into the show, and
Desi Jr. went on to portray her and Desi’s on-screen spawn.
After Lucille and Desi divorced in 1960, they stayed on good terms as friends and co-parents.
They both retained a healthy relationship with their children after their divorce, despite
the fact that they couldn’t make it work as a family unit.
It’s a good thing for Lucille and Desi that they treated their kids right, as their two
children are now the executive producers of Aaron Sorkin’s new biopic.
Lucie and Desi Jr. are making sure that Aaron Sorkin portrays their late parents kindly,
though they understand that the film is going to need to honestly depict some rather problematic
behaviors that their late father exhibited during the time that he was married to their
late mother.
Desi was a notorious drinker and adulterer and had some decidedly old-fashioned views
on marriage that proved the undoing of his relationship with Lucille.
Lucille and Desi were both human beings, and all Lucie and Desi Jr. can ask is that the
film portrays both their flaws and their positive qualities honestly.
Lucie Arnaz has recently come out with her opinions on Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of
her mother on the set of the film.
Being the Ricardos is currently still in production, but Lucie has been allowed to visit the set
as one of the film’s executive producers.
Lucie was apparently incredibly impressed with what she saw of Nicole’s work on the
film.
Notably, Aaron Sorkin decided to cast actors and actresses that weren’t direct physical
counterparts for the real-life figures they were meant to portray.
Instead, he focused on finding the actors and actresses that could correctly channel
the essence of the figures for the screen.
According to Lucie Arnaz, Aaron did an incredibly good job when picking Nicole.
The scenes that Lucie saw being filmed were flashbacks from the days just before her parents
met.
This means that Nicole was portraying Lucille Ball in the late 1930s.
The majority of the film is said to center on a single week in the life of Lucille and
Desi during the production of I Love Lucy.
During that week, Lucille and Desi will face many crises that put both their creative and
romantic futures in jeopardy.
Although Lucille and Desi’s two children are executive producers on Being the Ricardos,
Aaron Sorkin still seems to have been given creative autonomy over the film.
Apparently, Lucie was uncomfortable with a few scenes that Aaron had written into the
script that she felt inaccurately portrayed her parents.
However, Lucie was unable to prevent Aaron from filming these scenes on her own.
Miraculously, the sprinklers went off during production and destroyed the set the day those
scenes were meant to be filmed.
Because of this, Lucille and Desi’s daughter got her wish.
Besides the aforementioned scenes that never made it past the script, both Lucie and Desi
Jr. seem to be incredibly happy so far with how Being the Ricardos is turning out.
I Love Lucy fans can look forward to an honest cinematic portrayal of the tumultuous marriage
between icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz being available to watch sometime in the near
future!
In the meantime, fans can immerse themselves in the already available lore regarding the
iconic Hollywood couple that is being used as the film’s inspiration.
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Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz first met in 1940.
The two met while they were filming a movie for RKO Pictures titled Too Many Girls.
At the time, Desi was 23 years old.
He was working as a bandleader after his family had fled from Cuba in 1933.
Lucille was 28 years old and had been working as an actress for some time.
Although Lucille had yet to find her perfect starring vehicle, she had gained a bit of
notoriety.
The two hit it off, and soon began dating off the screen.
Lucille and Desi were married the same year that they met, and problems started arising
in their marriage almost instantly.
Infamously, Lucille recalled that Desi woke her up the first night of their marriage to
ask his new wife to get him a glass of water.
Lucille had apparently already started filling the glass up by the time she had awoken enough
to even realize what was going on, and the differences in values between the two would
only increase from there.
Lucille apparently tried separating from Desi in 1944 due to the fact that he was drinking
heavily and had been involved in numerous extramarital affairs.
The two had conflicting schedules, which made it incredibly hard for them to spend time
together.
They decided that they wanted to try and make their marriage work.
Eventually, the two got the idea that they should try working on a project together.
I Love Lucy was initially conceived as a way for Lucille and Desi to be able to spend more
time together.
Lucille’s schedule as an actress and Desi’s schedule as a bandleader were essentially
opposite, with Lucille waking up when Desi was going to bed.
I Love Lucy was meant as a way for the two to save their marriage.
The fact that it became one of the most successful sitcoms of all time was seemingly incidental.
The CBS network expressed interest in the concept of I Love Lucy, but was unsure whether
or not American audiences would be able to understand Desi’s heavy Cuban accent.
Because of this, the network tried to convince Lucille that another actor should be cast
to play the part of her husband.
However, this conflicted with what Lucille and Desi believed to be the entire purpose
of the show.
The couple wanted the show to be a starring vehicle for them, and no one else.
Lucille and Desi eventually got their wish, and I Love Lucy premiered to immense acclaim
in 1951.
The show ran until 1957, becoming not only one of the most successful sitcoms of its
time but also one of the most enduring.
New viewers are still watching I Love Lucy to this day, and its humor and heart continue
to stand the test of time.
The show’s format became incredibly influential, with many crediting I Love Lucy with being
one of the earliest domestic sitcoms.
Lucie Arnaz was born in 1951, while Lucille and Desi were actively at work on I Love Lucy.
Only two years later, Lucille gave birth to Desi Jr., with his birth being incorporated
into the show with an in-universe pregnancy plotline.
Lucille became one of the first women to even be shown on television during pregnancy, a
feat made even more notable due to the fact that I Love Lucy had always portrayed the
characters of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo as sleeping in separate beds.
Sadly, neither I Love Lucy nor the couple’s two children proved enough to saved the celebrity
marriage.
Despite all the work that he and Lucille had put into their show and their family, Desi
could never bring himself to stop his drinking.
As well, his drinking led him to continuously mistreat and cheat on his wife.
By 1960, Lucille had finally decided that she’d had enough.
Three years after I Love Lucy had come to an end, Lucille and Desi officially divorced.
Despite their divorce, Lucille and Desi continued to be good friends until their deaths.
As well, they continued working together to provide support for their two children and
run the production studio that they had founded together in 1950, Desilu Productions.
A few years after their divorce, Lucille amicably purchased her ex-husband’s share of the
company, making her the first female CEO to ever head a major Hollywood production studio.
Under Lucille’s sole leadership, the studio became more successful than ever.
In 1967, Lucille sold Desilu Productions for $17.5 million.
Both Lucille and Desi remarried after their 1960 divorce.
Lucille married comedian Gary Morton in 1962, and Desi married Edith Hirsch in 1963.
Decades later, Desi was the first of the former celebrity couple to pass away.
Desi died in 1986, passing away from lung cancer at the age of 69.
Lucille died only three years later of an aortic rupture at the age of 77.
Their legacy lives on, and fans anxiously await the release of Being the Ricardos sometime
in the future!
Besides Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball, Being the Ricardos will also feature Javier Bardem
as Desi Arnaz and J.K. Simmons as William Frawley.
Comment down below to share if you’re excited for Aaron Sorkin’s new look at the real-life
couple behind I Love Lucy, or if you would prefer to think of the couple as their idyllic
television selves.
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