Plus: The writer-director tells EW what drew him to the behind-the-scenes story.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve written a lot of behind-the-scenes stories in different genres of television.
For instance, that Lucy was accused of being a Communist.
Poster for ‘Being the Ricardos’.
I had this structural idea that appealed to me.
I like claustrophobic spaces; I like claustrophobic segments of time.
So I tried writing it.
What surprised you most about the real Lucy and Desi during this process?
Very early on, I had a chance to talk to Lucie Arnaz, Lucy and Desi’s daughter.
And she encouraged me to really take the gloves off.
Lucy wasn’t an easy person.
Their marriage, Lucy and Desi’s, wasn’t the same as Lucy and Ricky.
It was considerably more complicated.
The story is about these three major events in one week of production.
Why did you choose those three moments to dig into?
Did you ever consider maybe only doing one, or some different combination?
You want to pile as many obstacles in front of your protagonist as it’s possible for you to.
That’s what’s going to show us who they are.
So if one thing would have been good, two things are better, three things great.
And I chose these three things.
Everything that happens in the movie happened, it just didn’t all happen in one week.
I made it happen in one week.
I read a bunch of episodes, a bunch ofI Love Lucyscripts.
Why did I choose this one?
I’m trying to say it without giving anything away… Why were Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem the right choices for you?
And J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda?
Why were they the right choice in that regard?
First, just let me remind you that we’re not doingI Love Lucy.
We are able to see that she is a genius.
Those are just quick shards ofI Love Lucy.
I wasn’t casting Lucy and Ricky, I was casting Lucy and Desi.
And Vivian Vance and Bill Frawley.
Also, Nicole and Javier are very funny.
But the movie isn’t a comedy.
This trailer, we really barely get a glimpse of Lucille Ball’s face.
Why did you want to take that approach in cutting it?
I want to give all credit to Molly Albright and her team at Amazon, who created the teaser.
She got the idea from that to conceal Nicole’s Lucille Ball.
It was a writer’s choice, as opposed to a directorial choice.
This is the third film I’ve directed.
That’s what we know them best as.
And Lucille Ball does not look like Lucy Ricardo.
Lucille Ball was a knockout.
She looked more like Rita Hayworth than Lucy Ricardo.
I love how you’ve incorporated the iconicI Love Lucylogo and theme song.
Was there any debate about using that or how to implement it?
I didn’t want it to be how good an impersonation they were doing.
I wanted them to play the characters in the script.
Were you surprised to learn this about Lucy, and what made you want to dig into that?
What made me want to dig into it was that I was surprised.
And I didn’t know that about Lucy.
They’d have been radioactive.
You also sort of indirectly reference the Hollywood blacklist inMolly’s Gamewith a callout toThe Crucible.
Do you think you’d ever tackle that story directly in a film?
It wouldn’t surprise me.
And it wasn’t ancient history, it wasn’t that long ago.
How much did that influence your direction of them?
You’re right that the numbers are organic.
Nobody’s skipping down the street.
Desi and his orchestra would sell out Ciro’s every night.
We see Desi doing a couple of numbers.
It’s not a great movie.
It won’t be in the Criterion Collection.
There are two musical numbers there.
People are passionate aboutI Love Lucy.
He’s not someone who calls me a lot.
And he really liked hearing the grown-ups curse that didn’t happen on theAndy Griffithset.
I remember watching that.
But there are people who really have a much deeper connection to it.
They love that marriage between Lucy and Ricky, they love the friendship between Lucy and Ethel.
Being the Ricardosopens in theaters on Dec. 10 and on Prime Video on Dec. 21.
