COMMON KNOWLEDGE? > Harrison Ford, William Hurt, Jim Carrey, David Strathairn
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;MegynKelly“My responsibility was to listen
and to talk to as many as I could so
that people could empathize [with]
what they went through.”
Roach notes that the Ailes scandal
came more than a year before the
#MeToo movement swept through
Hollywood and before sexual-
harassment allegations brought
down media juggernauts like
Harvey Weinstein, Les Moonves,
and Matt Lauer (each of whom
denied the accusations against
them). There’s also the fascination
with Fox News itself and how
Ailes and his employees helped
shape the nation’s conservative
ideology. “These were women
who would not have necessarily
called themselves feminists and
sometimes even were anti–politi-
cally correct,” Roach says. “And
they ended up being the people
that spoke up.”DIRECTED BY Jay Roach
STARRING Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman,
Margot Robbie IN THEATERS Dec. 20“All of my other issues that I
have with that world, I had to put
all of that aside because the story
is worth telling,” adds Theron,
who also serves as a producer. “It
doesn’t have anything to do with
how I feel about Fox News or how I
feel about Republicans. That’s not
what this film is about at all.”
To fully transform into Kelly,
Theron recruited renowned
makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who won
an Oscar for Darkest Hour. He’s
technically retired from makeup
artistry, but Mindhunter season 2
(a show that Theron executive-
produces) coaxed him back to
sculpt some serial killers, and
Theron begged Hiro to suspend his
retirement again for Bombshell.
The actress also immersed her-
self in footage of Kelly, particularly
her unscripted interviews. “She’s
pretty hard, and she comes across a
certain way that feels very strong
and very much like you can’t break
through any of that wall,” Theron
says. “But there are moments
where you watch her—especially
after [the events in Bombshell] take
place—where you can see some of
her vulnerability.”
Even with all that preparation,
things didn’t always go as planned.
“The prosthetics on the eyes were
[especially] tricky,” Theron says
with a laugh. “We were all crack-
ing up because only one eye would
blink, and it looked like I had a
glass eye.”
Once the prosthetics were in
place, however, Theron says she
simply had to approach Kelly not
as a crusading hero nor a contro-
versial villain, but as a human
being. “You can’t tell a story like
this if you’re not empathetic,” she
says. “You don’t have to be sympa-
thetic, but if you don’t understand
or you’re not willing to for a second
stand in their shoes, you can’t tell
this story.” —Devan Coggan