“All of the things that happen in the movie happened in real life,” Aaron Sorkin said at the premiere of Being the Ricardos in New York on Thursday. “With this movie, I was interested in showing that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were nothing like the characters they were playing. The biggest thing is when you ask people to think of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, what they will picture in their head is Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. They have a very hard time separating those people. I want people to see the contrast.”
The writer-director’s latest stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as the beloved TV couple, weathering their turbulent real-life marriage while starring in the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy. The movie is set during one fraught week on set, weaving together Ball’s possible connection to communism, her pregnancy—a taboo topic for television at the time—and rumors of an extramarital affair surrounding Arnaz.
Although the film, which opens December 10 in theaters and December 21 on Amazon Prime Video, mostly omits specific iconic moments from the sitcom, Sorkin does find space for a few—including the famous grape stomping scene from the episode in which Lucy Ricardo is trying to get a part in an Italian movie. “Aaron was not interested in an exact carbon copy of Lucy, but for the grape scene, I felt it was important to copy her in order to understand Lucille more as she played a character,” said Kidman. “I studied every single facial expression and every move she made. I was obsessed with getting it absolutely right. Following her movements and timing just showed what a genius she was.”
Three months before the start of production, Kidman began working with dialect coach Thom Jones to capture the voices of both Ball and her TV alter ego. Jones helped Kidman develop Ball’s low-pitched speaking tone and the higher-register voice of Lucy Ricardo. She spent much of her time during the COVID-19 lockdown mastering the vocals.
“It was terrifying! It was so out of my reach,” she said of learning how to speak like Lucy Ricardo. “You usually don’t sit around at home, but we were in lockdown in Australia, so I was preparing for a couple of months. Admittedly, it was over Zoom, or I was sitting in my living room watching the I Love Lucy shows—and I was going, ‘Psssh, how am I going to pull this off?’ I was like, drinking, and doing everything I could! But after a lot of practicing, it just kind of happened physically and emotionally.”
Speaking like Ball was also a challenge for Kidman. “Lucille was a heavy smoker, so she had a voice that was a lot deeper than mine. I was able to work with my coach, who was able to help me lower my voice. And I did that as Virginia Woolf [in The Hours] as well. So I’ve done it before. As an actor, it’s something you learn when you’re in drama school and you go, ‘Am I ever going to be using this?’ I mean, I had to pull everything out to try.”
Kidman’s physical transformation involved makeup, a variety of wigs, and minimal prosthetics. Meanwhile, Bardem studied with a dialect coach to perfect Arnaz’s distinctive Cuban accent and took on singing and conga lessons to perform Arnaz’s signature songs “Babalu” and “Cuban Pete.”
“I have never sung before. I just had a month and a half to learn. I did a lot of work and applied a lot of hours trying and trying,” said Bardem. “I had a great teacher, and we did it by Zoom. She really taught me how to enjoy the process, and I actually enjoyed it way more than I expected. During the ‘Babalu’ scene, I was having too much fun. I was drumming so hard on the conga that there was blood coming from my hands!”
I Love Lucy endures as a sitcom classic, but Bardem gives particular credit to the couple—who divorced in 1960—for breaking down racial barriers in Hollywood. Thanks to Ball, Arnaz became one of the rare nonwhite talents to achieve television stardom in the 1950s.
“I admire Lucille for partnering and fighting for Arnaz to be on the show. He was an immigrant and not accepted by society. Her career could have ended because of him, but she did the opposite and helped change people’s views toward Cubans and immigrants and racism,” he said. “It’s the deep, deep passion and love that they had for each other, and even when they decided to be apart, they still had respect. It’s something we can all learn from them.”
— Jennifer Lawrence Exclusive: “I Didn’t Have a Life. I Thought I Should Go Get One”
— What’s the Deal With Seinfeld?
— “It Was as If Her Breast Exposed Itself”: The People v. Janet Jackson
— Succession Stars Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen on Episode Five
— After The Morning Show, Julianna Margulies Can’t Go Back to Network TV
— Lady Gaga Shines in the Curiously Drab House of Gucci
— The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again
— In Season Four, Selling Sunset Gets Real
— Understanding the Real Richard Williams, Father and Coach to Venus and Serena
— From the Archive: The Comeback Kid
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”
"ball" - Google News
December 03, 2021 at 10:40PM
https://ift.tt/3ogCKQF
How Nicole Kidman Became Lucille Ball: “It Was Terrifying!” - Vanity Fair
"ball" - Google News
https://ift.tt/39CKzGV
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment