America’s favorite television couple faces a crisis in Director Aaron Sorkin’s biographical drama, Being the Ricardos.
Sorkin’s film revisits the story of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) as their complex romantic and professional relationship is threatened by shocking personal accusations, a political smear and cultural taboos during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy.”
On December 4, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Sorkin discussed the making of Being the Ricardos during a Q&A moderated by Director David O. Russell (Joy).
During the conversation, Sorkin spoke about the challenges of introducing the audience to characters with whom they believe they are already intimately familiar.
“I knew there are some people who have an intense relationship not to Desi and Lucy, but Ricky and Lucy and they have a very hard time separating these characters. So, we were going to see two actors who were familiar with playing these two iconic people. Instinctively I knew that there had to be some kind of rollout process. So I kept the camera on the radio where we knew Winchell was going to call her a Communist, it's just a matter of when, and just decided to have Lucy and Desi walk in and out of the frame. We’ll see a hand. It'll be out of focus. We’ll hear their voices and by the time we get to Winchell saying that the most popular of all television stars has a membership in the Communist Party, they’re having makeup sex on the couch.”
In addition to Being the Ricardos, Sorkin was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for his 2019 feature The Trial of the Chicago 7. He also garnered a DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature for his debut 2017 film, Molly’s Game.
Sorkin has been a DGA member since 2016.
You can listen to Sorkin's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.