Aaron Sorkin’s biopic Being the Ricardos, which chronicles a week in the life of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, was announced, fans of the trailblazing couple and devoted watchers and re-watchers of the beloved TV show I Love Lucy, all had unswayable opinions of who might be able to fill the shoes of the tremendous icons. As casting began, the critics simultaneously chimed in. With every role being announced, all the way to the trailer being revealed, the criticism persisted. Even when their own daughter, Lucie Arnaz, after seeing the film, declared, “It’s friggin’ amazing,” fans and critics still bucked the casting choices.
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Javier Bardem, after Nicole Kidman addressed the fans’ endless second-guessing of the casting, spoke out via The Hollywood Reporter, conveying that the Being the Ricardos casting debate is part of a bigger conversation. Bardem makes his point, saying, “I’m an actor, and that’s what I do for a living: try to be people that I’m not. What do we do with Marlon Brando playing Vito Corleone [in The Godfather]? What do we do with Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep [in The Iron Lady]? Daniel Day-Lewis playing Lincoln [in Lincoln]? Why does this conversation happen with people with accents? ‘You have your accent. That’s where you belong.’ That’s tricky.
“Where is that conversation with English-speaking people doing things like The Last Duel, where they were supposed to be French people in the Middle Ages? That’s fine,” he continued, “but me, with my Spanish accent, being Cuban? What I mean is, if we want to open the can of worms, let’s open it for everyone. … We should all start not allowing anybody to play Hamlet unless they were born in Denmark.”
His response came after Nicole Kidman admitted to nearly backing out of the project due to the public outcry. Nicole Kidman’s response to the critcism, speaking on Live with Kelly and Ryan via People, she explains, “I went, ‘What have I said yes to?’ — to which I then went, ‘Oh no, I’m not right. Everyone thinks I’m not right so I’m going to try to sidestep this,’ " she said. “And the producer Todd Black and Aaron Sorkin were both like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I was in Australia and they were like, ‘No.’ And thank god, because then I was so grateful because I got to fall in love with her.”
Another piece of the conversation that seems to be missed by critics of the filmmakers’ choices can be pointed out in the opening credits of nearly every movie we see. We are shown the names of the creators of the art. It is the creator’s choice for the film they are making. The persistent and growing assumption that the fans requests, demands even, should be adhered to, is puzzling. The filmmaker has a vision for what they want to create, like any art form, and they set about executing it. We can all recall hundreds of exquisite films that have moved us, changed us, changed the world, and they didn’t require an online petition of the masses to achieve those lofty accolades. The artist makes the choices for what they want to create, and there are countless examples for why we should be championing that fact.
