Being the Ricardos Full Trailer Asks: Is Lucille Ball a Threat to the American Way of Life?

The first trailer for Being the Ricardos gave us just a glimpse at the cast as they set the stage for the new biopic. The official trailer released today shows a couple frantic to keep their marriage together while dealing with what appears to be the Red Scare investigation that plagued the couple. We are also treated with the first look at J. K. Simmons and Nina Arianda portraying William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

Executive producer and daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lucie Arnaz, praised writer/director Aaron Sorkin for capturing her parents’ essences and delivering “accurate composites” of the stars. This summer she described the film, explaining, “It takes place, primarily, during rehearsals for one of the shows. There are a few scenes where they’re at their house in Chatsworth, before working, after working. There are two or three short flashback scenes to her life before I Love Lucy, when she worked on the radio show, when she was trying to convince the network to hire dad.

“But stuff happens that week that didn’t happen altogether the way Aaron has written it. He’s taking some theatrical license and sort of cramming a couple of true events that did happen, they just didn’t happen at the same time. But you do learn a lot about what it was like back then. His dialogue is always incredible. And I think he treated my mother and my father really well. I think they are accurate composites of these people.”

During an interview with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, Aaron Sorkin was asked if there unexpected challenges in making the film. He responded, “I can give you an expected challenge. There are four musical numbers in the film, and that’s something I’d never done before, but we had a great musical director, great choreographer. The musical numbers are organic,” he adds. “It’s not La La Land. It’s rehearsals for Too Many Girls. It’s at Ciro’s where Desi and his orchestra are playing, that kind of thing.” The famous couple would meet for the first time in 1940 on the set of director George Abbott’s musical comedy Too Many Girls.

Lucie Arnaz took to Instagram last month to share her thoughts on the film after seeing the final cut. She gave it the highest praise, and that says a lot coming from their daughter who would be the most sensitive about how her parents were portrayed. She used the subtle phrase, “It’s friggin’ amazing.” Catch the full review below.

Being the Ricardos was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Alongside Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, the cast also includes J. K. Simmons and Nina Arianda portraying William Frawley and Vivian Vance respectively, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg. There is also a documentary in the works, directed by Amy Poehler and produced by Ron Howard that takes a deep dive starting from the very beginning. Catch Being the Ricardos in theaters December 10 and on Prime Video December 21.

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