Javier Bardem brought Desi Arnaz to life this winter in Being the Ricardos. Starring Bardem and Nicole Kidman as Desi and Lucille Ball, Being the Ricardos tells the story of the couple’s professional and personal obstacles throughout their careers, including their hit TV show, I Love Lucy. Bardem even got to celebrate a Screen Actors Guild nomination earlier this week due to his magnificent portrayal of the late actor.
“I’m very proud and so happy that people are reacting this way to the performance,” Bardem told Deadline. “This was a challenging performance in so many ways, mainly because I was portraying an iconic person and that’s always very scary and very challenging.”
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He continues, “I really tried to bring Desi’s energy to the role. He was so charismatic, so charming, and so openly attractive. This was not something I could turn on and off. He was like this constantly. He went out of his way to make everyone feel comfortable and to feel welcome. That’s an energy you have to portray.”
Bardem has had a promising career so far spanning three decades but this year took his career to even newer heights as he shot for two films simultaneously — Being the Ricardos and the upcoming live-action feature film, The Little Mermaid — while performing four songs without having any experience as a singer before shooting.
The year 2022 brings new adventures for Bardem as he is currently shooting the live-action musical comedy Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile based on the children’s book by Bernard Waber. Furthermore, Bardem is looking forward to shooting the highly anticipated Dune sequel this summer. He plays the character of Stilgar, the head honcho of Sietch Tibr, and the Fremen who originally accepts Jessica and Paul into Fremen society.
“I haven’t read anything yet, so I’m not sure what’s coming up next for me in Dune. I know as much as you do at this point. I hear there are scripts but I haven’t read anything,” he says. “I cannot wait to put myself into the hands of Denis Villeneuve again. I love the guy.”
Bardem’s biggest hope going into shooting is that Stilgar will get to ride a sandworm as he did in the Frank Herbert novel.
“The only thing I’m asking is that I get to ride a sandworm,” he says. “Denis told me he’s going to try to make that happen. That does happen in the book, by the way. Stilgar teaches Paul [Atreides] how to take the desert power, which is to domesticate those huge animals in order to use their force, their strength, and their huge size against the Harkonnen. Hopefully, that will happen.”
