Nicole Kidman is having fun.
The Oscar-winning Australian actress had her first real chance in physical comedy when she played the beloved American comedian Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos” and she loves it.
“At the Moulin Rouge I had a bit of physical comedy and stuff, but I rarely had access to that stuff,” Kidman said.
“It was great to do it … It was so liberating and exciting, and making people laugh is also like, What? This is, like, fun!” she added.
“Being the Ricardos”, which airs on Amazon Prime on Tuesday, goes behind the scenes of the 1950s TV comedy series “I Love Lucy” to tell a week in the life of Ball and her real husband and co-star. Desi Arnaz, who played. by Javier Bardem.
Ball’s career is threatened by allegations that she was a communist, while the couple’s personal life is disrupted by rumors that Arnaz is cheating and that Ball is recently pregnant.
Kidman’s original casting was met with a snipe on social media earlier this year, with fans complaining that the “Big Little Lies” star did not look like the lavish Ball. The criticism shocked Kidman as she prepared to shoot the film, but director and writer Aaron Sorkin persuaded her to ignore the comments.
“I said yes to the role. Then I said, ‘Oh my God, maybe I’m not right,'” Kidman said.
The reviews for the film were mostly warm, with some of the most welcome praise from Ball and Arnaz’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz.
“It’s terribly amazing,” Lucie Arnaz said in a YouTube video after seeing the film. “Nicole Kidman became my mother’s soul. She crawled on her head.”
As for Bardem, Arnaz said that the actor has “everything my dad had – he has his spirit, his charm, his dimples, his musicality”.
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