Aaron Sorkin slams Being the Ricardos casting critics

Aaron Sorkin has hit back at critics of the casting decisions for 'Being the Ricardos'.

The 60-year-old director is helming the new biopic about the relationship between 'I Love Lucy' stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and defended his choice to cast Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem in the lead roles.

Aaron told The Hollywood Reporter: "We made this movie during Covid, and so in Zooming with Nicole and Javier and everyone else, I'd make it very clear to them that I am not looking for a physical or vocal impersonation of these people.

"Leading up to the first rehearsal, I'd write to them every day, 'Just play the characters who are in the script.' I know that Nicole was working on Lucy's voice for a while, and I wanted to relieve her of that."

The 'Trial of the Chicago 7' director is confident that the concerns of audiences will be put to one side once they see Nicole perform.

Aaron said: "As far as audience anticipation, that's something I'm just not worried about. I'm certain that when people see the movie, they'll leave feeling that Nicole has made a very solid case for herself."

The filmmaker admits that his casting decisions became easy when Nicole and Javier – as well as J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda – expressed an interest in the project.

Sorkin explained: "I couldn’t cast Desi until we had our Lucy. What I needed was someone who absolutely owns it. And you're going to choose from a small pool of world-class actresses. This isn't for beginners, as Lucy says. This was going to be a kind of tour de force performance.

"And then when Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem and J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda say they want to do your movie, your casting search is over. You start out making graphs and charts and this and things like that, and then suddenly it gets easy."