Bardem watched nearly every ‘I Love Lucy’ episode to prepare to be Desi Arnaz

It’s during the Red Scare, when Lucille Ball, played by Nicole Kidman, is accused of being a communist, and she suspects he’s having an affair.

And then comes the moment when they say, OK, the job is yours, and you go, oh, my God, what do I do now? I felt it’s very exposing.

BARDEM: “Babalu,” yes, which is a song that was not included in the first draft of the script because Aaron Sorkin didn’t want the actor who would play it to sing “Babalu” because he thought it was way too challenging.

So the contradiction between how much he really wanted to be with her and how much he adored her and the life that he was doing when he was not with her is like two lives in one.

Then I heard some recordings with him and some producers, and you can tell that he was making sure that they understood that he was the boss because even having the power that he had still was having to fight against some – I don’t – I think the word is racism.

ELLIOTT: I’d like to talk for just a moment about the remarkable backstory to Desi Arnaz’s life, right? His family fled a revolution in Cuba in the 1930s.

And he – funny enough, the political vision of the world, it’s something that I wouldn’t share with Desi Arnaz.

BARDEM: And there was a moment in the movie where he speaks about that, and that was a moment where it was like, huh, that Javier had some problems with it.

It’s not that I’m a communist, but I’ve been very outspoken against the extreme right that is raising up in Europe and especially in Spain.

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