Megyn Kelly Says Watching Charlize Theron Play Her in Bombshell Was 'Incredibly Emotional'
Megyn Kelly is breaking her silence on the Fox News drama, Bombshell.
Kelly, 49, shared her thoughts on the film in a post to Instagram Friday with a photo of her youngest son Thatcher staring up at a poster of the Golden Globe-nominated film.
The movie — which stars Charlize Theron as Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robbie as a fictional Fox News employee — tracks the fall of former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), after Kelly and Carlson accuse him of sexual harassment.
“My husband @dougbrunt and I recently took our three kids to see the movie “Frozen 2.” As we walked into the theatre, our 6-year-old stopped at this poster promoting another movie hitting the big screen,” Kelly wrote in the caption. “The ad confused him because it appears to show a picture of me.”
A post shared by Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) on Dec 13, 2019 at 12:57pm PST
She continued, “But while the movie “Bombshell” is loosely based on my experience during the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, I have nothing to do with this film. I did not sell the rights to my story or book and only got my first look at the film once it was past the point of any possible edits, though there are certainly some I would have made.”
Despite not being involved in the film’s production, Kelly did saying, “Watching this picture was an incredibly emotional experience for me, and for those with whom I saw it.”
“Sexual harassment is pervasive in this country; it can leave scars that do not heal,” Kelly added. “My heart goes out to those who’ve gone through it, who I hope might find some comfort in this story. As for my thoughts about the film, I’ll have more soon.”
Theron, 44, received a SAG Award nomination for her portrayal of Kelly on Wednesday. Playing the controversial news figure wasn’t necessarily easy for Theron, who has been candid about the experience.
The actress has said playing the news anchor was even more of a struggle than portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster — a performance that won her an Oscar.
RELATED: Why Charlize Theron Agreed to Play Megyn Kelly in Bombshell: ‘We Weren’t Telling a Biography’
“This was harder,” Theron said while comparing the two experiences during a conversation following an October screening of Bombshell in New York City.
“She’s incredibly well known,” she said. “I’ve never played anybody on that level. I’ve played real people that nobody knows about so there was less pressure when I did those.”
The Atomic Blonde star said that though “there were some things that bothered” her about Kelly, she was ultimately able to get past those things to tell the larger story of what was happening at Fox.
“You forget sometimes, all of us do this, we tend to live in this world where we think we know people. As an actor you have to have the ability to put all of that aside,” she said. “What the story was was really just this year at Fox. We weren’t telling a biography. This isn’t the Megyn Kelly story. Once I got past that, this year of her life was incredibly interesting and felt to me like a story worth telling.”
Ailes was accused of sexual harassment by numerous women, including Kelly, at Fox News. He denied the allegations until his death in May 2017.
Bombshell is playing in select theaters now.
