Apparently, Aaron Sorkin has no regrets about casting Nicole Kidman as mid-century sitcom star Lucille Ball in his upcoming biopic Being the Ricardos. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-winning Social Network scribe defended his decision to cast Kidman and Javier Bardem in the film, a decision that raised more than a few eyebrows as trailers for the Amazon Prime film have been released.
Sorkin told THR that he began the casting process with Ball, and that he limited his search to “a small pool of world-class actresses.”
“This isn’t for beginners, as Lucy says,” Sorkin said. “This was going to be a kind of tour de force performance.” Sorkin went on saying that when actors of the caliber of Kidman, Bardem, as well as Tony-winner Nina Arianda and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons who play Vivian Vance and William Frawley, express interest in joining your film, “your casting search is over.”
The Trial of the Chicago 7 writer and director was not interested in his actors attempting to impersonate the people they were tasked with portraying, going so far as to ask Kidman to drop her Lucille Ball impression. “I know that Nicole was working on Lucy’s voice for a while, and I wanted to relieve her of that,” Sorkin said. As for whether the audience will ultimately buy Kidman as Lucy, Sorkin said “that’s something [he’s] just not worried about.”
“I’m certain that when people see the movie, they’ll leave feeling that Nicole has made a very solid case for herself,” he continued, “but moreover, I’ve found that you can really leverage low expectations.”
Sorkin was quick to follow those questionably supportive words with glowing reviews for his cast. “Now the fact of the matter is when Nicole, as Lucille Ball, plays Lucy Ricardo, I think she does an incredible job of mimicking Lucy. Same with Javier, Nina, and J.K.,” he said. But for those hoping to see Kidman yuk it up for 90+ minutes recreating scenes from I Love Lucy, you’re out of luck—Sorkin reveals that less than three minutes directly recreating the classic sitcom appear in the film.
As such, Sorkin wasn’t too concerned with finding an actress that looked like Lucille Ball, and was more concerned with finding someone, well, sexy to play the part. “Finding an actress who looked like Lucille Ball wasn’t important to me, especially because I was excited by the idea that Lucille Ball doesn’t look like Lucille Ball,” he says. “Let her be what she’s not allowed to be on TV in 1952 on CBS. Let her be a woman. Let her be sexy.” Okay!
Sorkin also addressed criticism surrounding the casting of Javier Bardem, who is Spanish, to play the Cuban Desi Arnaz. He first pointed to the hiring of a Latina casting consultant within Amazon’s casting department as evidence of the film’s good intentions, saying she was fine with Bardem playing the part. Sorkin added that he doesn’t want to use the casting consultant “as a cover,” and made his stance on identity politics and representation within casting quite clear.
“Spanish and Cuban aren’t actable, okay? They’re not actable. By the way, neither are straight and gay. Because I know there’s a small movement underway that only gay actors should play gay characters. Gay and straight aren’t actable. You could act being attracted to someone, but most nouns aren’t actable.” Sorkin has spoken—you cannot act a person, place, or thing.
Being the Ricardos hits theaters on December 10 and Amazon Prime on December 21. Until then, expect Debra Messing to trend every time we get a further glimpse into Kidman’s “sexy” Lucille Ball.
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