Nicole Kidman becomes Lucille Ball in ‘Being The Ricardos’ first trailer
Amazon Studios has released the first trailer for Being The Ricardos, a feature film that follows the marriage of I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as Ball and Arnaz respectively, the film takes place over the course of a week during the production of the classic 1950s TV sitcom.
Being The Ricardos is written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. It marks his third film in the director’s chair following Molly’s Game and The Trial Of The Chicago 7.
Lucille and Desi’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, has praised Kidman’s performance, and even recorded a special message on Instagram after seeing the full film.
“It’s friggin’ amazing,” Lucie said. “That guy [Sorkin] made a great movie.
“He captured the essence of that time in their lives so well. He captured the heart of my mother, 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, and 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, it shows, and I believe everything she said.
“Javier Bardem, he really doesn’t look that much like my dad. But he has everything that dad had. He has his wit, his charm, his dimples, his musicality, his strength and tenacity, and you can tell from the performance that he just loved him.”
The film also stars J.K. Simmons as William Frawley, who played landlord Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, and Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, aka Lucy’s best friend Ethel Mertz, alongside Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Clark Gregg, Linda Lavin and Jake Lacy.
Being The Ricardos releases in cinemas on December 10, and will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from December 21.