Debra Messing Fans Slam Nicole Kidman’s New Movie
Debra Messing fans are not happy with Nicole Kidman right now!
This article is more than 2 years old
Remember when the Atlantean soldiers come for Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna in the beginning of 2018’s Aquaman? Well, imagine those water-breathing soldiers as Debra Messing fans on Twitter and you’ll have a pretty clear idea of how things are going right now. The Messing crowd is convinced their beloved actress should have landed the role of comedy legend Lucille Ball in the upcoming Amazon film Being the Ricardos.
The trailer for Being the Ricardos dropped a couple of weeks ago, with the film set to debut on Amazon Prime Friday, December 10. That, along with other promotional news about the movie, awakened grudges nearly a year old over the casting of Nicole Kidman. In spite of the fact that the film is now less than a month away from streaming for Amazon Prime subscribers, Debra Messing fans are still being very tweety about what they see as a casting injustice. Thankfully, many are being polite — preferring to praise Messing rather than bash Kidman.
But, of course, this is Twitter. Not everyone posting their opinions worries about being gentle or polite or just, you know, not incredibly insulting. As you can tell by some of the tweets below, some Messing fans are a little bit more vicious toward Nicole Kidman.
But, of course, this is Twitter. If you’ve got one side passionately arguing for something and not being very polite about it, you’re going to get another side arguing for the opposite and being just as polite. The tweets from those in the pro-Nicole Kidman camp tend to point out the Oscar winner has a lot more acting chops than the sitcom star Messing, and they’re not all nice about it.
There are no indications that Debra Messing was ever being seriously considered for Being the Ricardos, so you may understandably find yourself confused as to exactly where this anti-Nicole Kidman campaign came from. Last year, Messing’s sitcom Will & Grace aired We Love Lucy, in which Messing played the spitting image of Lucille Ball. Will & Grace fans loved her performance, and were convinced she was the only choice for a biopic. This was apparently an opinion Messing shared, since even after Kidman was announced to be in talks to play Lucille Ball, Messing told People she hadn’t given up the chance to steal the role from her.
In fact, while Nicole Kidman wasn’t said to be in talks for the part until January 2021, a year earlier — months before the airing of We Love Lucy — Cate Blanchett was attached to play the Being the Ricardos lead. She eventually left the project and was replaced by Kidman. For better or worse, there’s nothing to indicate Messing was ever in the running.
Ironically, writer/director Aaron Sorkin is currently being dragged over the coals for a casting choice and it has absolutely nothing to do with Nicole Kidman or Debra Messing. Instead, he’s being criticized for casting the Spanish actor Javier Bardem as the Cuban-American Desi Arnaz. In an interview published today by The Hollywood Reporter, Sorkin defended the choice. The director said he’d spoken to a Latina casting consultant about hiring Bardem for the role, and added, “Spanish and Cuban aren’t actable, OK?… By the way, neither are straight and gay… Gay and straight aren’t actable. You could act being attracted to someone, but most nouns aren’t actable.”
