Lucie Arnaz is telling people to “stop arguing” and “trust us” when it comes to casting the upcoming film Being the Ricardos. The daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz spoke out in a video shared to Facebook on Sunday after Deadline reported last week that Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were being eyed to play Ball and Arnaz in the movie, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin.
Initial reports about the casting prompted fans to weigh in on social media, many of whom were not thrilled with Kidman’s reported role. While many suggested other actresses to play the iconic comedian, Debra Messing even expressed her displeasure that she had not been consulted, having been a dead ringer for the I Love Lucy star during an episode of Will & Grace, retweeting messages from fans who were throwing her hat in the ring.
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However, Lucie shared in her video Sunday, “It’s a done deal.” She continued to clarify that the upcoming film is not a “remake” of I Love Lucy. “Nobody has to impersonate Lucy Ricardo nor do the Vitameatavegamin routine, or … any of the silly things. It’s the story of Lucille Ball, my actual mother, not Lucy Ricardo, and her husband, Dezi Arnaz, my dad, not Ricky Ricardo,” she continued.
While there will certainly be “humor” in the film, the Amazon Studios movie is the story of her parents’ love story — “what went right with finding the show, what went wrong, their relationship, their love affair.” While I Love Lucy will of course be a part of the movie, Lucie shared that “very little of the show is actually I Love Lucy-type stuff,” as it centers around the things happening at the same time the married couple made the comedy a hit. Regardless of what they expected, Lucie said fans won’t be disappointed.
“Aaron has done a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life, and it’s just a little … slice of life in their journey,” she continued. “It’s not the whole story. It’s not a biopic from cradle to grave. It is a two-hour feature film about these two people and some of the remarkable things they lived through. So I hope I can set the record straight here, and just say, stop arguing about who should play her, ‘She doesn’t look like her, her nose isn’t the same, she isn’t as funny. …Just trust us, it’s going to be a nice film, and p.s. the voting is over. I love all of you.”
