Lucie Arnaz Weighs In on Lucille Ball Casting Controversy

Lucie Arnaz wants everyone to just relax. The daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz spoke out in a message  on Facebook on Sunday, attempting to calm fans worked up about casting for the upcoming film Being the Ricardos, which was written and will be directed by Aaron Sorkin. 

After Deadline reported last week that Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were being eyed to play Ball and Arnaz, respectively, some fans took to social media, suggesting other actresses to portray Ball. Debra Messing, who previously played Ball’s I Love Lucy character during an episode of Will & Grace, even campaigned for the part. 

But as Lucie shared on Sunday, “It’s a done deal.” While contracts have yet to be signed, Lucie seemed happy with the casting and wanted fans to understand the upcoming Amazon Studios film is not “a remake of I Love Lucy.” 

“Nobody has to impersonate Lucy Ricardo nor do the Vitameatavegamin routine, or … any of the silly things. It’s the story of Lucille Ball, my actual mother, not Lucy Ricardo, and her husband, Dezi Arnaz, my dad, not Ricky Ricardo,” she explained. 

“There will be humor in the film, but it is a story of the two of them and how they met and what went right with finding the show, what went wrong, their relationship, their love affair,” she continued. “Now, of course it’s going to have I Love Lucy in it. As a matter of fact, Aaron Sorkin has set it on the stage of filming one week of rehearsal, rehearsing and filming the show. But all this other stuff takes place during that time.”

Lucie repeated that “very little of the show is actually I Love Lucy-type stuff,” and said fans won’t be disappointed. 

“Aaron has done a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life, and it’s just a little … slice of life in their journey,” she shared. “It’s not the whole story. It’s not a biopic from cradle to grave. It is a two-hour feature film about these two people and some of the remarkable things they lived through. So I hope I can set the record straight here, and just say, stop arguing about who should play her, ‘She doesn’t look like her, her nose isn’t the same, she isn’t as funny…'” 

“Just trust us, it’s going to be a nice film, and p.s. the voting is over,” she added. “I love all of you.” 

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Watch the video below for more on Kidman. 

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