‘Bombshell’: Charlize Theron Says Megyn Kelly’s Reaction Video Was ‘Validating’
At the Producers Guild of America (PGA) awards on Saturday night, where she accepted the Stanley Kramer Award, Charlize Theron said that watching the video response from former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, to the Oscar-nominated “Bombshell,” was “really emotional.”
Theron, who plays Kelly in the film, was reacting to a 30-minute taped discussion that Kelly posted to her YouTube Channel on January 9, in which she was joined by former Fox co-workers Juliet Huddy, Rudi Bakhtiar and Julie Zann, and husband, Douglas Brunt, after a private screening of “Bombshell,” and then talking about the film afterward.
“When they talked about how the film really got the essence of what it felt like to work there and what they experienced there, the fact that we got that right, that just felt really validating,” Theron said. “Because that’s ultimately as filmmakers what you’re trying to get. You know, it’s not a documentary, but to get that right was important.”
Kelly has spoken at length about “Bombshell,” the Jay Roach-directed movie. She previously took to Instagram to share her thoughts on the film, which she called an “incredibly emotional experience” while stressing that this wasn’t necessarily the version of her story she would’ve told.
According to Kelly, the events portrayed in the movie aren’t exactly as they happened in real life.
“They suggest that I had run my debate questions for Trump by the Murdochs. That’s a fantasy. I never ran it by Ailes or the Murdochs, or anyone other than my debate team,” Kelly said. “The notion that Roger liked the ‘Donald Trump woman question’ because it created controversy in a TV moment was not true. Roger did not like the question at all and was very angry at me for asking it. And at one point eventually asking me, ‘no more female empowerment stuff.'”
Kelly also added, “There certainly were no protests of me at the GOP convention. There were other people’s protests. That was all BS.”
Kelly and former Fox employee Julie Zann also said that Margot Robbie’s character Kayla — a fictionalized composite character meant to represent the young staffers that Ailes reportedly harassed during his tenure at Fox — isn’t portrayed as they’d hoped, especially in a moment where she calls out Kelly’s character for her silence.
The film earned three Oscar nominations last week: Best Actress (Theron), Best Supporting Actress (Margot Robbie) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Watch Kelly’s full YouTube discussion of “Bombshell” below.
