‘Being the Ricardos’: Everything to Know About the Nicole Kidman Film Inspired by Lucille Ball

Credit: Courtesy Amazon Prime Video/YouTube

‘Being the Ricardos’: Everything to Know About the Nicole Kidman Film Inspired by Lucille Ball

Being the Ricardos will have a lot of explaining to do! The film offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the classic sitcom I Love Lucy — but it’s not really about the TV series. “Everyone thinks we’re remaking the I Love Lucy show, and it’s so not that,” Nicole Kidman, who plays the late Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, told Variety in June. “It’s about Lucy and Desi [Arnaz] and their relationship and their marriage. It’s very deep, actually.” Ball and Arnaz tied the knot in 1940 before going on to star in the legendary series, which ran from 1951 to 1957. Three years after I Love Lucy ended, the couple were divorced. [jwplayer LcaGiJoY-zhNYySv2] The movie, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, takes viewers “into the writer’s room, onto the soundstage and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom I Love Lucy,” during which they are “threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos,” according to the film’s summary. In January, the Practical Magic actress teased that there would still be plenty for even the biggest I Love Lucy fans to learn from the film, which also stars Javier Bardem as Arnaz. “[I’m] very excited for people to see what Aaron found out about her and the way he's interpreted Desi and Lucy and the way that it's so rich,” Kidman told Variety. “I didn't know any of this." While the movie explores a chaotic time in Ball’s career and her relationship with her then-husband, who died in 1986, Kidman made sure the film also paid tribute to the comedy icon, who passed away in 1989 after suffering from an aneurysm. “She was a trailblazer. She formed her production company. Desi was Cuban, and she had to fight to get him on the show,” the Big Little Lies alum told Chris Rock for Variety’s Actors on Actors series in June. "[Ball and Arnaz] had just so many things in their marriage that are so relevant today, and what she was also dealing with in terms of everything that artists deal with, where you’re up against big corporations. And you’re like, ‘No, this is art.’” In the same interview, Kidman admitted that the role forced her “out of my comfort zone” since she’s “never cast [as] funny.” However, according to Ball’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, she seems to have a natural gift for comedy. “​​Nicole did a spectacular job," Lucie told Palm Springs Life in August after visiting the film’s set. "Boy, what she did was astounding. She's got such poise and class." Keep scrolling to read everything you need to know about Being the Ricardos: [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy Amazon Prime Video/YouTube

‘Being the Ricardos’: Everything to Know About the Nicole Kidman Film Inspired by Lucille Ball

Being the Ricardos will have a lot of explaining to do! The film offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like making the classic sitcom I Love Lucy — but it’s not really about the TV series. “Everyone thinks we’re remaking the I Love Lucy show, and it’s so not that,” Nicole Kidman, who plays the late Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, told Variety in June. “It’s about Lucy and Desi [Arnaz] and their relationship and their marriage. It’s very deep, actually.” Ball and Arnaz tied the knot in 1940 before going on to star in the legendary series, which ran from 1951 to 1957. Three years after I Love Lucy ended, the couple were divorced. [jwplayer LcaGiJoY-zhNYySv2] The movie, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, takes viewers “into the writer’s room, onto the soundstage and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom I Love Lucy,” during which they are “threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos,” according to the film’s summary. In January, the Practical Magic actress teased that there would still be plenty for even the biggest I Love Lucy fans to learn from the film, which also stars Javier Bardem as Arnaz. “[I’m] very excited for people to see what Aaron found out about her and the way he's interpreted Desi and Lucy and the way that it's so rich,” Kidman told Variety. “I didn't know any of this." While the movie explores a chaotic time in Ball’s career and her relationship with her then-husband, who died in 1986, Kidman made sure the film also paid tribute to the comedy icon, who passed away in 1989 after suffering from an aneurysm. “She was a trailblazer. She formed her production company. Desi was Cuban, and she had to fight to get him on the show,” the Big Little Lies alum told Chris Rock for Variety’s Actors on Actors series in June. "[Ball and Arnaz] had just so many things in their marriage that are so relevant today, and what she was also dealing with in terms of everything that artists deal with, where you’re up against big corporations. And you’re like, ‘No, this is art.’” In the same interview, Kidman admitted that the role forced her “out of my comfort zone” since she’s “never cast [as] funny.” However, according to Ball’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, she seems to have a natural gift for comedy. “​​Nicole did a spectacular job," Lucie told Palm Springs Life in August after visiting the film’s set. "Boy, what she did was astounding. She's got such poise and class." Keep scrolling to read everything you need to know about Being the Ricardos: [podcast_block]

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Release Date

Being the Ricardos hits theaters on Friday, December 10. It will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting Tuesday, December 21.

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The Cast

Kidman stars as Ball in the film, alongside Bardem, who plays Ball’s then-husband, Desi Arnaz. In the classic sitcom on which the movie is based, the former couple portrayed husband and wife  Ricky Ricardo and Lucy Ricardo. 

The cast also includes J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, Jake Lacy, Alia Shawkat, Linda Lavin, Clark Gregg, Christopher Denham and Tony Hale.

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The ‘I Love Lucy’ Connection

The movie takes place during one important week of filming I Love Lucy as Ball and Arnaz "face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage," per the logline. 

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The Controversy

After critics questioned Kidman’s casting in the film, Ball and Arnaz’s daughter spoke out in support of the Undoing actress.

"There seems to be a lot of discussion about Nicole Kidman [and people saying] it should be Debra Messing," Lucie wrote via a Facebook video in January. "I don't know, but here's the deal and what you should understand: We're not doing a remake of I Love Lucy. No one has to impersonate Lucy Ricardo [or do] any of the silly things. It's the story of Lucille Ball, my actual mother—not Lucy Ricardo—and her husband, Desi Arnaz, my dad—not Ricky Ricardo."

Lucie, who is an executive producer on the project along with her brother, Desi Arnaz Jr., told Palm Springs Life in August that she thought Sorkin “treated my mother and my father really well” in his writing, adding, “I think they are accurate composites of these people. … The people that he has cast are just really great performers."

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How Nicole Kidman Transformed Into Lucille Ball

When preparing to channel Ball, Kidman said she paid special attention to the New York native's speech patterns. "I've had to put in an enormous amount of time on Lucille Ball right now, because she has a very particular way of speaking," she told Variety in June.

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The First Trailer

The full-length teaser for the film shows Lucy (Kidman) and Desi (Bardem) as they take on the FBI over her Communist Party affiliations, while also trying to save their marriage. “We’ve been through worse than this,” Desi tells his wife, who asks, “We have?” He replies, “No.”

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Recreating Classic 'I Love Lucy' Episodes

Sorkin’s criteria for remaking some of the most memorable moments in I Love Lucy history was simple. “[I] wanted to show Lucy as the smartest comedic mind in the room,” he told Entertainment Tonight in December 2021.

The West Wing scribe said he hinged a major moment in Being the Ricardos around the season 1 episode “Fred and Ethel Fight” because it had “the most opportunities for Lucy to ask leading questions about what’s going on.”

His favorite episode they used in the film, however, was the iconic moment in “Lucy’s Italian Movie” where Ball stomps around in the grapes. “It looked like she was having the time of her life,” he said of Ball’s enthusiasm in the original scene. “She dove into that bath of grapes and was rolling around it all.”