As the world begins to weed out its top contenders for next year’s awards season, homegrown superstar Nicole Kidman has certainly risen to the top, thanks to her work in Liane Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers, and now, as Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s Being The Ricardos.
The film is set during the filming of a singular episode from the iconic sitcom, I Love Lucy, back in 1952. Just as importantly, joining Kidman onscreen is Javier Bardem, who stars as Desi Arnaz, Ball’s on-and-off screen husband.
Now, with the release of the film’s first teaser trailer, Kidman’s portrayal of the sitcom superstar can be heard, with only a slight glimpse of her vibrant, red hair that perfectly encapsulates Ball.
What fans of the show may not know, is that while I Love Lucy was one of the most popular comedies of this century, Kidman’s biopic aims to take a more dramatic angle, though its exploration of McCarthyism, marriage and the struggles of show business.
“The only thing better than a story people don’t know is a story that people think they know but they’re wrong,” Sorkin told Entertainment Weekly, adding that the structure of the movie may have seen a slight adjustment of the timeline, but it’s ultimately a true story.
“Everything that happens in the movie happened, it just didn’t all happen in one week. I made it happen in one week.”
But of course, Sorkin stresses that fans shouldn’t expect perfect impressions of their beloved onscreen stars.
“I made it clear to everyone, but particularly Nicole and Javier, that I didn’t need them to do a physical impersonation of Lucy and Desi,” he explained. “When Lucy and Desi had to play Lucy and Ricky, I needed some kind of nod toward those characters that are very familiar to us, but makeup or prosthetics, we weren’t going to do any of that. I didn’t want it to be how good an impersonation they were doing,” Sorkin said.
As for the couple’s daughter, Lucy Arnaz, she was given input on the casting and the script and has called the finished product “very emotional”, according to the publication.
“There are some moments that were harder for me to experience than they likely will be for the general public,” Arnaz told the publication. “But those moments were handled with such compassion that it wasn’t as depressing as it could have been.”
Piqued your interest? Check out the first teaser trailer for Kidman’s Being The Ricardos below:
Being the Ricardos premieres on Amazon Prime Video on 21 December
