Here's who's playing Fred and Ethel in the upcoming I Love Lucy movie

'Being the Ricardos' is now filming.

The Everett Collection

We've been reporting on the upcoming Lucille Ball biopic for years. Six years, to be exact. Originally, Cate Blanchett was linked to star as the iconic sitcom pioneer. However, in January, after half a decade of development, Nicole Kidman was inked to play Lucy in the Aaron Sorkin film.

We knew then that Javier Bardem would portray Desi Arnaz. Now, the rest of the cast has been filled, as cameras have started rolling on Being The Ricardos, according to Empire. The movie will take place across a week of production on I Love Lucy, detailing the disintegrating relationship between the two stars.

Lucy fans would love to hear who is playing Fred and Ethel, right? JK Simmons, a familiar face from Farmers Insurance commercials and superhero films, steps into the shoes of William Frawley / Fred Mertz. Tony-winner Nina Arianda, who previously portrayed Stan Laurel's wife Ida Kitaeva Laurel in Stan & Ollie (2018), takes the role of Vivian Vance / Ethel Mertz. Those two actors are 30 years apart in age, which mirrors the age gap (22 years) between Frawley and Vance.

The rest of the cast includes Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as I Love Lucy producer and head writer Jess Oppenheimer and Alia Shawkat (also Arrested Development) as show writer Madelyn Pugh.

Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucy and Desi, serves as an executive producer on the movie and explained her attachment to the Amazon project to Empire: "My brother Desi and I signed on because this is a story of our folk’s real-life passionate, tempestuous and complicated relationship and not a recreation of I Love Lucy — no one could do that."

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13 Comments

LynCarceo 41 months ago
No mention of Clark Gregg? He's supposed to have a part. I guess if he's not mentioned, his part's small.
OldTVfanatic 41 months ago
So J. Jonah Jameson is playing Fred Mertz/William Frawley. Stan Lee is spinning in his urn.
Loathing_68516 42 months ago
lol... JK Simmons won an academy award for Whiplash and you credit him as the Farmer's insurance and super hero films guy?
Drechsler 42 months ago
Nicole Kidman as Lucy??? You got to be kidding. She’s not funny like Lucy and I am sure she won’t be very good at acting. I may watch a little of it but it is going to be hard to remake this cast.
vinman63 42 months ago
Whaaaaa Ricky our biopic is terrible. Wucie they have spanin to do.
Corey 42 months ago
The real William Frawley was a drunk and decades older than Vivian Vance and They both hated each other.
TinkRoss 42 months ago
I can not see Nicole Kidman or Javier Bardem in these roles. Both Lucy and Ricky had funny personalities and these 2 seem like duds. I won't even mention the fact that they don't look anything like Lucy and Desi.
Deleted 42 months ago
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42 months ago
Actress Frances Farmer was a very good Lucy.
15inchBlackandWhite 43 months ago
I just can't see Nicole Kidman as Lucy. Physically they are too different. Then again I could never have imagined Brad Garrett as Jackie Gleason and he managed to pull that off quite well.
I can’t see Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball either. I understand she won’t need to make all those Lucy Ricardo expressions, but Nicole’s face doesn’t move a lot.
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