Take a second look: that’s not Megyn Kelly. That’s Charlize Theron! The actress looks exactly like the former Fox News anchor in the new trailer for ‘Bombshell,’ the shocking movie about the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal.
“You have to adopt the mentality of an Irish street cop,” Kate McKinnon’s character tells Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) in the new Bombshell trailer, released Oct. 15 on EllenTube. “ ‘The world is a bad place. People are lazy morons. Minorities are criminals. Sex is sick but interesting. Ask yourself, ‘what would scare my grandmother or piss off my grandfather?’ And that’s a Fox [News] story.” With that stage set, the new trailer also introduces the players at the heart of the movie based around the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal. We’re introduced to Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron). The resemblance that these actors have to their real-life counterparts is stunning, especially how Charlize is a near-perfect doppelganger to Megyn Kelly.
This is the first look at Litgow’s Roger Ailes, as well as Alanna Ubach’s Jeanine Pirro. Oh, was that Bree Condon as Donald Trump Jr.’s current girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, in a ‘Team Roger’ t-shirt? The first trailer featured the fictional Kayla getting in an elevator with Gretchen and Megyn, and the three head to the second floor – the executive suite at Fox News Channel’s 1211 Ave of the Americas office. Not a word is said. Considering that Carlson sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment in 2016 and Kelly admitted in her book, Settle For More, that the Fox News boss sexually harassed her, it’s clear as to what binds these three together. Gretchen ultimately settled with 21 st Century Fox for a reported $20 million, and Roger Ailes passed away on May 18, 2017.
“I have no interest in playing heroes,” Charlize Theron said at Bombshell’s first night screening at Pacific Design Center on Oct. 13, according to Deadline. Charlize’s production company Denver & Delilah helped bring the film to fruition, and she’s also a producer on the film. “I like playing someone who is complicated and flawed, who at the beginning might be oft-putting.. … Women don’t always do the right thing. This idea of what a victim looks like, of what an abuser looks like, is not black and white. It’s incredibly gray.”
We are in a climate now that is pretty intense, and it is not cooling,” she added. “Now, there is more safety in numbers, and that is happening, which is why I think this movie is so powerful.” The power in the movie is undeniable, as Deadline said it “explodes into [the] Oscar race.”
Bombshell is set for a wide-release on December 20.