Some people may have watched “Bombshell” with their friends, loved ones or family. Megyn Kelly watched it with some of the women who inspired the film.
The former Fox News anchor, played by Charlize Theron in the movie that chronicles sexual harassment allegations against the late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, shared her reaction to the movie in a YouTube video Thursday.
In the video, Kelly speaks to Juliet Huddy, Rudi Bakhtiar and Julie Zann, all women who spoke out with accusations of sexual harassment at the news organization. After watching the movie together, Kelly and the women shared their experiences.
Kelly opened up the discussion with her reaction to Theron’s performance, which has been hailed by critics.
“I can’t speak to the job Charlize Theron did, because I’m just too close to it,” Kelly said. “It’s just too weird to see somebody who looks just like you on the screen pretending to be you.”
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Her husband, Douglas Brunt, however, was more critical, saying Theron looked the part, but her voice was “forced trying to get down deep and low.”
“I thought it was just a little one-dimensional and just didn’t capture some of your humor,” he continued, adding that he does think the “Monster” actress is “talented.”
Kelly then set the record straight on some of the film’s inaccuracies. Contrary to what “Bombshell” portrayed, Kelly says she did not run her controversial debate question for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump about his treatment of women by the Murdochs (“That’s fantasy”). And in real life, Ailes did not praise her for the Trump question, but hated it. He was “very angry at me for asking it. At one point actually he said to me, ‘No more female empowerment stuff!'” Kelly recalls.
One of the most wrenching and challenging scenes to watch, according to the former Fox News stars, was “that elevator scene, the ride to Roger’s office,” said Kelly, which was highlighted in the film’s first trailer.
Watching the scene where Margot Robbie’s fictional character Kayla Pospisil, a young producer hoping for an on-air-role, is summoned to Ailes’ lair, “I feel like we all cried,” said Kelly.
“When she got that call and went in the elevator, I lost it because you immediately go to what happened to you, and what her fate was in that room,” Zann said, fighting back tears. “The Margot Robbie scenes were very, very close to what actually happened.”
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Kelly also brought up the “infamous spin,” saying Ailes would ask women to do in his office.
The former Fox News employees recounted their experiences with “the spin,” from refusing to do it to being told to put on some weight.
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“I was asked to do the spin and God help me, I did it,” Kelly said. “I remember feeling like, I put myself through school, I was offered partnership at Jones Day, one of the best law firms in the world, I argued before federal courts of appeal all over the nation, I came here covering the United States Supreme Court, I graduated with honors from all of my programs and now he wants me to twirl. And I did it.”
She added: “If you don’t get how demeaning that is, I can’t help you. In retrospect, I’d give anything if I had said, ‘No.’ “
A “Bombshell” scene Kelly reacted most strongly to was the film’s portrayal of her alleged hesitation in speaking out against Ailes sooner. If she had, Robbie’s Kayla argues in the film, she could have saved other women from similar experiences.
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Zann strongly defended Kelly.
“When I watched that scene, I immediately thought, ‘This is shameful,’ because it’s unfactual, and it is victim-shaming, and if this is a movie about sexual harassment, this is sending the wrong message,” said Zann. “And that is what they don’t have right in this film or in the (Showtime) miniseries, is that you were just a real support system.”
“I saw that scene, and I’m like, ‘That was written by a man,’ “said Kelly, noting that in #MeToo history “victim 17” doesn’t usually blame their harassment on “victims one through 16.”
Despite this, Kelly said she wouldn’t remove the scene from the film.
“The truth is that I’ve looked back on my own life, every moment from that moment forward, and I do wish I had done more,” she said, holding back tears. “Even though I was powerless, even though it would have been a suicidal move for me career-wise. What if I had just said, ‘Screw it. I’ll go back to practicing law’… What if I had thrown myself in the fire back then? Maybe that wouldn’t have happened to you.”
“Bombshell” opened in theaters last month and has been a strong contender throughout awards season. The drama goes behind the scenes at Fox News in 2016, chronicling the efforts of a group of women – including on-the-outs host Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman) and star anchor Kelly – to expose a culture of misogyny, leading to the ouster of then-CEO Ailes (John Lithgow), who was accused of sexual harassment by more than 20 women.
Contributing: Patrick Ryan
