I must be taking crazy pills. Following Tuesday’s release of the trailer for Aaron Sorkin’s next feature film, “Being the Ricardos,’ fans are howling on social media that Nicole Kidman is not the right fit as Lucille Ball.
If that is what you think, then 1). You have absolutely no perspective on how insanely talented Nicole Kidman is, and 2). You didn’t watch the same trailer as me.
For the first point, I’m not going to write 5,000 words defending Kidman’s work. Her filmography speaks for itself. Go to IMDb and have a gander at just how impressive her Oscar-winning resume really is.
As for the trailer, she’s deliberately obscured virtually the entire time! Seriously, check it out. Kidman provides voiceover narration–sounding just like Ball–and is seen in glimpses. How on earth is anyone possibly making a judgement on the casting and/or performance based on that?!
The backlash comes just one day after Metaflix broke the story that “Being the Ricardos’ received a critical endorsement from Lucy and Desi’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz. According to her, “It’s friggin’ amazing. [Sorkin] made a great movie… He captured the essence of that time in their lives so well. He captured the heart of my mother and my father, their relationship. He captured the love between those players in the ‘I Love Lucy’ show. The tension that was brought on in this particular week when all hell broke loose.”
Specific to Kidman, Arnaz reveals that, “Nicole Kidman became my mother’s soul. She crawled into her head. I don’t know how you do that. She cared very deeply about this part, [and] it shows. And I believed everything she said. She looks beautiful – thank God they didn’t do exact lookalikes, I couldn’t have taken it.”
In other words, I think I’ll trust the opinion of Lucy’s daughter–who has actually seen the film!–over those who are forming an opinion based on absolutely nothing and just want to throw stones from their glass houses all the time.
