Although she and her brother were executive producers of Being the Ricardos, Lucille Ball’s daughter wasn’t happy with the Nicole Kidman-starring Prime Video drama.
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During the screening of the 1993 special Lucy & Desi Home Movies, Lucie Arnaz referred to Being the Ricardos as “a crock of poop.”
“I tried to work on it and correct the incorrect parts,” Lucille Ball’s daughter explained. “Especially [my mother’s] relationship with writers. Totally wrong, right? She adored those people. They got along so well; none of that backstabbing, crazy, insulting stuff.”
Arnaz also noted that she found another aspect of the film overblown, specifically the relationship between Vivian Vance and William Frawley, who played Ethel and Fred on I Love Lucy. She claimed any tension was “overly done.”
Determined to speak her mind, Arnaz said she approached Becoming the Ricardos screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin, who, she says, shrugged her off.
“You can’t talk to Aaron,” she said. “He’s Aaron Sorkin.”
Arnaz also recalled Sorkin telling her, “Well, what do you know? You were 15 months old.”
According to IMDb, Becoming the Ricardos follows famous actors Lucy Ball and Desi Arnaz as they face a crisis that could end their careers and another that could end their marriage.
Those who starred in the film alongside Kidman were Javier Bardem, J.K. Simmons, Nina Arianda, and Tony Hale. Becoming the Ricardos was nominated for three Oscars, three Golden Globes, and three Critics’ Choice Awards.
Nicole Kidman Previously Opened up About Playing Lucille Ball in the Film
During an interview with NPR, Nicole Kidman discussed the challenges of playing Lucille Ball in Becoming the Ricardos.
“So, there was the I Love Lucy show, and I just thought, well, if I can create literally a carbon copy of her in the show where I look like her, I move like, I sound like her, all of those things, and I really studied for months, like watching, rewinding, starting again, getting the timing, working on it, working on it, working on teh sounds with my dialect,” she explained. “If that can be accurate, that then gives me the license to be Lucille Ball.
However, Kidman admitted there was some “pressure” in portraying the late actress. “I didn’t want to let the team down,” she said. “You know, the sense of when you’re coming in and these actors are so good and this director-writer is the best in the world, and there’s an enormous amoung ot expectations.”
“I was like, ‘God, I hope I don’t disappoint,'” Kidman added. “And I think through the whole film, it was nerve-wrecking because I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m getting there and it’s very hard to believe it.'”