ET spoke with Lucie Arnaz about the new documentary about her beloved parents, 'Lucy and Desi,' directed by Amy Poehler.
There's a newfound appreciation and fascination for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. With many projects about the couple's successful, yet tumultuous, marriage making their debut, their daughter, Lucie Arnaz, tells ET how she'd like her late parents to be remembered.
"Exactly the way we're doing it right now. How can it get better than this?" Lucie tells ET's Matt Cohen at the Los Angeles premiere of Lucy and Desi on Tuesday. "I mean, 70 years after their show went off the air and hundreds of years after they were born, to suddenly be, I don't want to say reinvented, they're not reinvented but rediscovered and re-appreciated and used to teach and to find a better way to live our life [is amazing]."
Lucille and Desi got married in 1940, before divorcing 20 years later in 1960. The frequent collaborators and I Love Lucy stars had two children together; Lucie, 70, and son Desi Arnaz Jr., 69. The red-headed comedian died in 1989, while Desi died in 1986.
The power couple worked hard and achieved much success together, with Lucie admiring their dedication to show biz and their careers.
"That's one good way to look at it, you know. You gotta look at that and that's what they did," she expresses. "They chose to go head-on into that. And the relationship didn't last as long as their children might have wanted it to, but in reality their love for each other lasted forever. So you don't get better than that really."
Directed by Amy Poehler, Lucy and Desi explores Lucille and Desi's unlikely partnership and enduring legacy, as they risked everything to be together to create their empire. With this documentary and Being the Ricardos bringing the nostalgia, Lucie says "it feels amazing" to celebrate her folks.
"It's raining Lucy and Desi right now and it just feels great! The TCM podcast, then we found the old Let's Talk to Lucy radio shows, and the picture," she says of the resurgence of her family projects. "Only the radio shows came from us. I found those and wanted to put them out, everything else came to us and I just think it was the right time. It's a time to celebrate unconditional love and it's a time to explore relationships deeper and they're very good subjects to use for that."
When asked how it feels to relive her parents' marriage and tough moments together, Lucie admits that the older one gets, the more one understands the challenges their parents went through.
"The older you get -- I may have heard these things before -- but the older we get, the older your children get, the longer you're married, the more you understand what people go through in order to try to stay together and have relationships and raise their children and stay working in this business," she reflects. "And it's not easy. And they did it really well and still didn't really succeed on some levels. But it's a great thing to look at and say, 'Well, would I have made those choices? Would I have done it differently? Would I have succeeded?' You never know."
One project that Lucie has worked on and has been very successful is Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards; Best Actress and Best Actor for the two leads, as well as Best Supporting Actor for J.K. Simmons.
"We're very proud. They were an amazing cast and they did a brilliant job, just absolutely beautiful," Lucie, who served as an executive producer, relays. "What they were given to do, I think they brought their A-game plus, and I'm so happy for all three of them, really."
Lucy and Desi will stream on Prime Video on March 4.
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