Lucille Ball's Daughter Lucie Arnaz Defends Nicole Kidman's Casting: 'The Voting Is Over'

"Just trust us, it's going to be a nice film," Lucie Arnaz said

Lucie Arnaz
Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Lucie Arnaz — who is the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz — is reacting to the casting of Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as her parents in the upcoming film, Being the Ricardos.

On Sunday, Lucie opened up about the forthcoming Aaron Sorkin-directed movie and acknowledged some backlash to the casting. Earlier this month, Deadline reported Kidman and Bardem are in negotiations to star as Ball and Arnaz.

In a video message shared on Facebook, Lucie, 69, said, "It's a done deal," though she noted, "The contracts aren't actually signed, which is why I haven't said anything publicly about it."

"But I felt I should just at least try to calm the waters here," she added. "There seems to be a lot of discussion about Nicole Kidman. It should be Debra Messing. It should be Carole Cook, I don't know."

Nicole Kidman, Lucille Ball
Nicole Kidman and Lucille Ball. Leon Bennett/Getty; Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Continuing her conversation with fans, Lucie reminded them that the upcoming flick is not a remake of I Love Lucy, but instead focuses on her parents' real-life story.

"Here's the deal. You should understand. We are not doing a remake of I Love Lucy. No one has to impersonate Lucy Ricardo nor do the Vitameatavegamin routine, or the chocolate factory routine or any of the silly things," she said. "It's the story of Lucille Ball, my actual mother, not Lucy Ricardo, and her husband, Dezi Arnaz, my dad, not Ricky Ricardo."

"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 a filming one week of rehearsal, rehearsing and filming the show — but all this other stuff takes place during that time."

"Very little of the show is actually I Love Lucy-type stuff," she added. "I don't think you will be disappointed with that, however."

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Then, detailing that Sorkin, 59, "has done a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life, and it's just a little soupcon," Lucie also noted that the film is "a little slice of life in their journey. It's not the whole story."

"It's not a biopic from cradle to grave," she said. "It is a two-hour feature film about these two people and some of the remarkable things that they lived through."

"So I hope I can set the record straight here, and just say, stop arguing about who should play her," she added, before noting some of the critiques that fans have expressed about the portrayal of her mother.

"Just trust us, it's going to be a nice film, and P.S. the voting is over," she concluded. "I love all of you."

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Prior to the news of Kidman, 53, signing on to star in Being the Ricardos, Lucie had previously expressed her approval of Messing, 52, and her portrayal of her late mother. Messing even recently shared her desire to star in the role that Kidman has reportedly obtained.

In an interview with Variety from last year, Messing detailed that Lucie gave her a stamp of approval behind the scenes of the I Love Lucy tribute episode of Will & Grace.

"I was in the green dress. We were about to shoot the song and dance [number] and she walked in and she just looked at me and didn't say anything." Messing said. "Then she hugged me and she said, 'This feels really good. It's been a long time since I've hugged you,' and everyone started to cry."

"And then she smiled and she said, 'I know how long you've been wanting to do this, Debra. And I'm so glad we were able to make it happen.'" And then I had to go [to the stage]," she added. "As I walked away, she said, 'Break a leg, Mom.' Everybody just flipped out and cried. It was really moving."

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