Nicole Kidman is garnering a lot of praise for her portrayal of American actress Lucille Ball in the recently-released biopic Being the Ricardos, but the history behind bagging this role and bringing it to life has been anything but smooth sailing.
Indeed, when director Aaron Sorkin – who also penned the screenplay – initially announced Kidman for the role, social media erupted in a wave of controversy and backlash, with many folks questioning the likeness between the Aquaman star and the classic sitcom actress, not to mention her natural aptitude for comedy. As of now, despite the mixed critical reception to the film itself, Nicole is proving all her doubters wrong.
In fact, she’s already been nominated in the Best Actress category at both the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, so it’s doubtful that we could find many thespians who’d do as wonderful a job with a somewhat mediocre flick.
Kidman recently sat down with The Guardian to chat about the character of Lucille, and what it was like to depict her love affair with actor Desi Arnaz (played by Javier Bardem.) When she talked about how you’re going to fall in love with someone “who isn’t going to be the person you spend the rest of your life with”, the interviewer couldn’t help but ask if she was referring to her marriage to Tom Cruise. Nicole got angry at this remark and criticized it by saying:
“Oh, my God, no, no. Absolutely not. No. I mean, that’s, honestly, so long ago that that isn’t in this equation. So, no. And I would ask not to be pigeonholed that way, either. It feels to me almost sexist because I’m not sure anyone would say that to a man. And at some point, you go, ‘Give me my life. In its own right’.”
Kidman has been happily married to country singer Keith Urban for quite a while now, but it seems that her former espousal to Cruise, which lasted from 1990 to 2001, is still a topic of speculation. Frankly, it’s been well over two decades, so we can’t help but admit that her response is completely reasonable, if not downright justified.
