Lucille Ball's daughter says her mother 'never thought of herself as a feminist' and 'hated every minute' of running her production studio

• Lucille Ball made history in show business, but Lucie Arnaz said Ball didn't think of herself as a feminist.
• Lucie also said her mother "hated every minute" as president of Desilu Productions.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, recently told the New York Post that she "straightened" out the focus of the new Amy Poehler-directed documentary film "Lucy and Desi" early in the development process. According to Lucie, the movie was originally going to focus on how Ball "changed the female perspective, ran a studio, and was a feminist" — which Lucie says was "fake."

Lucie said she told the producers of the film that her mother "never thought of herself as a feminist" and that some of the work Ball did at Desilu Productions, the production company she cofounded with then-husband Desi Arnaz in 1950, "was dumped on her." Ball became president of Desilu Productions in 1962 after Arnaz, who she'd divorced two years prior, wanted to step away from the business, according to the Lucy-Desi Museum.

"She hated every minute of it. All she wanted to do was a show," Lucie recalled telling the documentary team in her interview with the New York Post.

The exes, who remained business partners after their divorce, produced the later seasons of "I Love Lucy" and its next iteration, "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" through Desilu Productions. When the shows about the Ricardos ended, Desilu Productions was still responsible for producing hit shows like "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek."

Once Lucie addressed the angle and was sure that she was contractually allowed to help with the documentary while also serving as an executive producer on Aaron Sorkin's biopic "Being the Ricardos", she participated by giving an interview for "Lucy and Desi" and allowing Poehler and her team access to audio recordings of interviews her parents did that had never been available to the public before.

She also gave Poehler a ringing endorsement as the director for the project. "That's a really wonderful viewpoint to look at this through — she's in the world of comedy, she's a businesswoman, she has a family and is trying to balance all of that," Lucie told the New York Post.

Lucie previously directed her own film about her parents called "Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie," which aired on NBC and won an Emmy in 1993. But once she was certain that "Lucy and Desi" wasn't trying to tell a "fake" story, she knew it had something unique to offer by looking at her parents' lives through the lens of their love story.

"These were two really amazing people who had crazy stuff happen to them in their lives and still they were able to mount this amazing, crazy, wonderful show," Lucie said of her parents. "And probably the whole reason that these things existed was their love for one another."

"Lucy and Desi" is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.