Being The Ricardos
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Mikayla Daniels sums up the controversy surrounding Aaron Sorkin and the casting of this film.
Mikayla Daniels sums up the controversy surrounding Aaron Sorkin and the casting of this film.
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Being The Ricardos
Clip | 4m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Mikayla Daniels sums up the controversy surrounding Aaron Sorkin and the casting of this film.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Welcome to my web comments on the Saturday Night Cinema broadcast of “Being the Ricardos”.
I'm Mikayla Daniels here to share a bit more about the film.
Back in 2017, it was publicly announced that Amazon had snatched up the rights to the Lucille Ball biopic and that Cate Blanchett was set to star in it.
So what happens?
Often, cast directors, writers and studios all change hands between the initial spark of a development until the final post-production.
There can be many reasons for this schedule changes.
Actors dropping out due to no longer being comfortable in the role and personality differences.
There are many egos in the film world, and not everyone wants to deal with potential controversy either.
And this film and its director had some.
But first, why did Kate drop out of this film?
Well, according to an interview in 2023 with Lucie Arnaz.
When Kate initially signed on, Aaron was only meant to write the script when he then became the director of the film.
She dropped out as she did not want to be directed by him.
Now, Aaron Sorkin has had his own controversies over the years, and several are tied to this particular film.
First is the casting choice of Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor, to play Desi, who is Cuban.
There was backlash around this casting, and both Sorkin and Bardem speaking out against the pushback.
While addressing the controversy over the casting choice with The Times, Sorkin spoke about LGBTQ+ roles in actors.
He said, “nouns aren't actable, gay and straight aren't actable.
You can act being attracted to someone, but you can't act gay or straight.
So this notion that only gay actors should play gay characters, that only a Cuban actor should play Desi.
Honestly, I think it's the mother of all empty gestures and a bad idea.” Well, Billy Eichner, an openly gay actor, comedian and screenwriter, took to his official Twitter account shortly after Sorkin made his comments, pointing out that what Sorkin's fears is not actually a Hollywood and which actors are losing control over the roles that they play, but rather a Hollywood in which straight men are no longer entirely in charge.
Eichner wrote, “Completely ignorant of how Hollywood has treated its openly LGBTQ+ actors for a century.
Talking about stuff he doesn't fully comprehend.
Scared that Hollywood isn't entirely ruled by straight men anymore.
Go write yourself a walk and talk back into the past.
Merry Christmas.” Now is Sorkin right?
And we should just understand that the role of an actor is to transform into someone else?
Should we not be conscious of the fact that for most of the existence of TV and film, the actors and stories have largely been white, male and straight?
Can we just put any actor of color in a role for a nonwhite character?
Or should we look at the actors and the character's actual heritage?
Should straight actors play queer roles, and should those queer pieces be directed by straight white men?
It's a debate that many are still having within the industry and seeing how new this film is.
I'm sure you can tell it's still a huge issue, both in Hollywood, but also in small town film and theater productions.
Sorkin did say this film is about the original “cancel culture”.
Referring to the red scare and communist blacklisting of Hollywood that is a central part of this film.
Now, I feel that term is misleading at best, especially his use of it as what happened in the 40s and 50s was political oppression and persecution of ideas related to socialism, and not people calling out insensitive casting choices.
Thank you for watching my extended comments on Being the Ricardos, and be sure to look around our Facebook page and ksps.org for more blogs, polls, and trivia from all the hosts and Movie Maverick Mike.
And don't forget to tune into Saturday Night Cinema on KSPS PBS.
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