In the new film, Being the Ricardos, actor Nicole Kidman faced two challenges.
The first: depicting the legendary comedian Lucille Ball. And the second: depicting Lucille Ball depicting Lucy Ricardo from the iconic sitcom I Love Lucy.
Aaron Sorkin, who wrote and directed the movie, told Kidman that he wasn’t looking for some strict impersonation of Ball. Instead, he needed Kidman to find the balance between channeling someone on film rather than impersonating them.
“So there was the I Love Lucy show, and I just thought, well, if I can create literally a carbon copy of her in the show where I look like her, I move like her, I sound like her, all of those things — and I really studied that for months, like watching it, rewinding, starting again, getting the timing, working on it, working on it, working on the sounds with my dialect coach,” Kidman says.
“If that can be accurate, that then gives me the license to do Lucille Ball, as Aaron said, with the sexuality, with messy hair, with all the things that do not make you go, oh, right, that looks exactly like her. There’s a feeling of her, but there’s a human being here.”
Kidman received a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the film. She spoke with NPR’s All Things Considered about how she really channeled Ball, the relationship between Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Ball’s work ethic.
On how she channeled Lucille Ball as a person
I mean, vocally, she had a much deeper voice than me, so I was able to create this voice that was a much raspier voice. It was a smoker’s voice. She was a big smoker.
I’ve said before, she had the most beautiful hands. Her hands were a huge extension of her personality. And I don’t have those hands … but I really focused on those hands. They really helped me. And then I think, the love that she had for Desi and the desire for a home — that is such a strong force in me that I grasp. I want a home. So that was an immediate understanding and connection.
On the pressure to portray Ball
I didn’t want to let the team down. You know, the sense of when you’re coming in and these actors are so good and this director-writer is the best in the world and there’s an enormous amount of expectation. I was just like, “God, I hope I don’t disappoint.” And I think through the whole film … it was nerve-racking because I was like, “I don’t know if I’m getting there and it’s very hard to believe it.”
