It’s been four years since the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz biopic Being The Ricardos was released. The Aaron Sorkin-directed movie was a huge hit, earning three Oscar nominations for acting.
Despite this, Being The Ricardos is now being slammed by Lucy and Desi’s daughter Lucie Arnaz. Indeed, she feels that many parts of the biopic were not accurate at all.
Lucie Rips Into Being The Ricardos
While speaking at a screening of the 1993 special Lucy & Desi Home Movies in Hollywood, California, Lucie revealed that she disagreed with many of the plotlines featured in Being The Ricardos.
“I tried to work on it and correct the incorrect parts, especially [my mother’s] relationship with the writers,” Lucie, 73, said at the event. “Totally wrong, right? She adored those people. They got along so well; none of that backstabbing, crazy, insulting stuff.”
Lucie went on to slam that storyline as being “such a crock of poop,” adding, “It was so wrong.”
Not stopping there, Lucie also took issue with how the biopic portrayed the tensions between Lucy and Desi’s I Love Lucy stars Vivian Vance and William Frawley. In Being The Ricardos, Lucie believes that the tensions between Vivian and William were “overdone.”
Lucie then said that she tried to work with writer and director Aaron Sorkin, 64, on fixing these inaccuracies. However, she found that he wasn’t very receptive to what she had to say.
“You can’t talk to Aaron. He’s Aaron Sorkin,” Lucie explained. She added that he was sometimes open to “meaningful consultation” only to conclude, ” ‘Well, what do you know? You were 15 months old.'”
Keith Thibodeaux, who played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy, was also at this screening. He has similar feelings about Being The Ricardos as Lucie does.
“It’s well done and all that, I just didn’t get it,” said Keith, 74.
Related: Inside Lucille Ball And Desi Arnaz’s Sex-Crazed Marriage
Aaron Defends Being The Ricardos
As for Aaron, he declined to comment on Lucie and Keith’s remarks when contacted by People Magzine. In the past, he’s defended Being The Ricardos by claiming that Lucy saw her show I Love Lucy as a way to save her marriage to Desi.
“Desi wasn’t around that much, he was touring with his orchestra,” Aaron told IndieWire in 2021 . “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,” he continued. “There was reason to believe the idea would work. ‘I Love Lucy’ exists to save the marriage.”
Clearly, Lucie doesn’t agree with this assessment!
Lucie Praises Nicole For Lucille Ball Portrayal
Being the Ricardos managed to earn three acting nominations at the Oscars. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress for playing Lucy, Javier Bardem was nominated for Best Actor for playing Desi, and J.K. Simmons was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing William.
Though she didn’t like the movie itself, Lucie has had nothing but praise for the way Nicole portrayed her mother.
“Nicole did a spectacular job,” Lucie told Paul Springs Life in 2021. “Boy, what she did was astounding. She’s got such poise and class.”
Related: Lucille Ball’s Daughter Reveals What She Thinks About Nicole Kidman Portraying Her Mom
Desi died in 1986, and Lucy followed him three years later in 1989. This means that they aren’t around to challenge their portrayals in Being The Ricardos. In the end, their daughter would likely know better than anyone just how accurate a biopic about her parents really is. That’s why for Lucy and Desi’s sake, we’re going to take Lucie Arnaz’s word on this one!
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