Charlize Theron Revealed the One Thing She Had to Do to Feel Like Megyn Kelly
Charlize Theron leaves nothing in reserve when it comes to embodying a character — Remove the eyebrows! Add the prosthetics! — but physical transformation alone isn’t enough to turn in a praise-worthy performance.
“I just recently watched [footage] for a behind-the-scenes thing, and it was actually so off-putting because I’m in the prosthetics, but I’m not in character,” Theron told The New York Times regarding her role as former Fox News anchor and Roger Ailes's alleged victim Megyn Kelly in Bombshell. “I wasn’t doing this thing she does when she walks into a room, which I truly believe comes from years and years of having to prove herself.”
The thing in question? “She leads with her jaw, and she has this very static, still posture that nothing can penetrate. It’s like, ‘I will not give you a physical read on me.’ Even when she shares emotional stories, she protects herself at all times, but I am a true believer that strong behavior in characters comes from an emotional need.”
Finding her way into a woman so seemingly opposite the liberal Theron was challenging for the actress, but she’s not interested in roles that don’t provide that challenge. “Unless it’s something where I really feel like I’m going to go scare myself — like I’m standing on a ledge and if I fall, it might be brutal and not pretty at all — I don’t really want to do it anymore,” she explained.
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“There are things she has said that I’ve definitely had issues with, but it doesn’t invalidate how I feel about her struggle,” she continued. “I really do believe that what she and those women went through was messed up, even though they work for a network that I highly have issues with.”
