Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s daughter want fans worried about the next film about their parents to take a deep breath.
On Sunday, Lucie Arnaz posted a video on Facebook responding after fans expressed their dismay when early reports revealed that Nicole Kidman will play Ball in “Being the Ricardos”, an upcoming film about her and Arnaz from writer and director Aaron Sorkin.
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The other Oscar winner, Javier Barden, would have been chosen to play Arnaz. The news of the cast was not made official, but it was reported on Deadline and other commercial publications, leading some fans to complain.
“I thought I should at least calm the waters here,” said Arnaz in his Facebook video. “It looks like there’s a lot of discussion about Nicole Kidman. It should be Debra Messing. It should be Carole Cook, I don’t know.”
Arnaz, 69, reminded people that the film is not an update on “I Love Lucy” and its classic episodes, but rather the story of his parents’ real life.
“That’s the deal. You must understand. We’re not doing a remake of ‘I Love Lucy’. Nobody needs to impersonate Lucy Ricardo, or do the Vitameatavegamin routine, or the chocolate factory routine or any of those silly things, “she said.
“It’s the story of Lucille Ball, my real mother, not Lucy Ricardo, and her husband, Dezi Arnaz, my father, not Ricky Ricardo. There will be humor in the film, but it is a story of the two and how they met and what went well in finding the program, what went wrong, their relationship, their love affair. “
Ball died in 1989 at the age of 77. Arnaz died in 1986 at the age of 69. The couple, who also had a son, Desi Arnaz Jr., married in 1940 and divorced in 1960.
Arnaz said his parents’ legendary sitcom will not be an integral part of the film, but will serve as the main backdrop.
“Now, of course there will be ‘I Love Lucy’ in it,” she said. “Actually, Aaron Sorkin put him on stage for a week-long shoot of rehearsal, rehearsal and shooting the show. But all of those other things happen during that time. Very little of the show is really, ‘I love things like Lucy. No I think you will be disappointed with that, however.
“Aaron did a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life, and it’s just a little soup. It’s a little piece of life on his journey. It’s not the whole story. It’s not a biopic from the cradle to the grave. It’s a two – an hour-long film about these two people and some of the remarkable things that they lived. I hope I can clarify things here and just say, stop arguing about who should play her: ‘She doesn’t look like her, her nose it’s not the same, she’s not that funny. ‘”
Arnaz ended by telling everyone that everything would work out in the end.
“Trust us, it will be a good movie and PS: The vote is over,” she said. “I love everything in you.”