At a screening of the 1993 special “Lucy & Desi Home Movies” on the Paramount Studios lot on June 5, Lucie Arnaz got candid about her feelings on Aaron Sorkin’s 2021 film “Being the Ricardos.” The movie, which followed Arnaz’s parents Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz during the production of the seminal ‘50s series “I Love Lucy,” garnered a mixed critical response — though Nicole Kidman earned praise and an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Ball. Lucie Arnaz served as an executive producer on the project.
“I was involved, and I tried to work on it and correct the incorrect parts, especially her relationship with the writers,” Arnaz said in a video from the June 5 event. “Totally wrong, right? She adored those people. They got along so well, none of that backstabbing, crazy, insulting stuff. That was such a crock of poop. It was so wrong.”
Arnaz also said that the tension depicted between Vivian Vance and William Frawley — known best as their “Lucy” characters Ethel and Fred — was “overly done.”
“But, you know, you can’t talk to Aaron. He’s Aaron Sorkin,” she explained, saying he would listen in what she referred to as “meaningful consultation… But then he would say, ‘Well, what do you know? You were 15 months old.’”
Arnaz added that she was concerned about putting her name on something that future generations may look back on and consider to be the truth. The panel discussion also featured actor Keith Thibodeaux, who portrayed the Ricardos’ son Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy,” who also had issues with the Sorkin film.
“It’s well done and all that, I just didn’t get it,” Thibodeaux said.
Arnaz did concede that the fill was “beautifully made,” and has previously praised Kidman’s performance as her mother.
“Nicole did a spectacular job,” she told Paul Springs Life in 2021. “Boy, what she did was astounding. She’s got such poise and class.”
Arnaz appears to have had evolving feelings on the movie over the years. After seeing the film initially in 2021, she called it “freakin’ amazing.”
Sorkin told IndieWire in 2021 that he built “Being the Ricardos” around Ball seeing the series as a salve for her marriage to Desi Arnaz.
“Desi wasn’t around that much, he was touring with his orchestra,” Sorkin said. “Lucy had to be in L.A., she wanted her marriage to work, she wanted a family. She wanted Desi to play her husband, which was not a crazy idea. She would go out and meet Desi and the orchestra on weekends; he’d call her up on stage to do bits that the writers had written and audiences loved it. There was reason to believe the idea would work. ‘I Love Lucy’ exists to save the marriage.”