In 2016, women who worked at Fox News were starting to reveal a dark secret about the network's founder, Roger Ailes. The truth was he sexually abused each and every one of them.
Blaine: Before TimesUp and #MeToo happened, a script had just been finished for a story about women fighting against a sexual predator. Screenwriter Charles Randolph was amazed with how these women spoke up in order for the public to know the truth and he wanted to meet with them to turn their story into a screenplay. Charles got all sorts of answers from the women who were victims at Fox and they wanted to explain what they went through. The women explained things in full detail in order for the story Charles was going to write to be done right. Once the script for “Bombshell” was finished it was brought to Charlize Theron’s producing company, hoping they could help make “Bombshell" into a film and everyone there thought the script was powerful, including Charlize Theron. “Bombshell” was the type of movie Charlize was 100% positive on wanting to make. Charlize would do anything to bring it to life. And then the question came if Charlize would also be interested in playing Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly and that was something Charlize wasn’t so sure on. Megyn Kelly sounded like she would be challenging to play and the question kept repeating itself in Charlize’s head if it would be a good idea to play Megyn Kelly. Charlize had been friends with director Jay Roach for some time and he was the one who convinced Charlize to go for it after he read the entire script.
Charlize thought she knew everything about Megyn Kelly, but reading Charles Randolph’s script made her realize there was a lot more to Megyn than she thought. Charlize felt she had never taken on a part that was as challenging as Megyn Kelly. Charlize never contacted the real Megyn Kelly because she felt she didn’t need Megyn’s help. There was other ways of finding out how you were going to perform as Megyn Kelly. Charlize studied Megyn Kelly through footage of her doing a broadcast and the dialect coach would watch with her. Charlize would listen closely to Megyn Kelly’s voice. Charlize’s voice hurt while trying to deepen it in order to sound like Megyn’s. Charlize’s vocal cords got injured while practicing the voice and she wasn’t allowed to speak for three weeks. Charlize hoped her voice would heal before principal photography began. The last thing Charlize had to do to become Megyn Kelly was wear makeup prosthetics and Charlize was happy they found a very talented makeup artist to do the job. Looking at Charlize Theron in “Bombshell” made me feel like I was actually looking at Megyn Kelly herself. And Charlize used all her strength and devotion in order to make it convincing she is Megyn Kelly in this movie. Charlize says she has Jay Roach to thank for believing in her and going on this journey with her.
Megyn Kelly went through a lot from 2015 to 2016. Megyn Kelly was being bullied by Trump lovers after doing a report against Donald Trump. And Trump fought back hard on Megyn, but she managed to hang in there. Her husband, Douglas Brunt, was always there for her, even defended her against people who would be hard on her. Douglas is also someone Megyn can talk to because he’s her best friend. After Trump, Megyn decided to speak against a man who sexually abused her, but was also like a mentor to her. Megyn had mixed feelings about that, but it was the right thing to do. Megyn achieved a career because of Roger Ailes, but that doesn’t change the fact that he had demons to tell him to treat women as slaves and make them do things they are not comfortable with.
Next to Douglas, Megyn’s team was there to comfort her and listen to whatever stress issues she had. But the team was concerned about taking down Roger Ailes because they weren’t sure if this meant it would be the end of Fox, then they wouldn’t have jobs anymore. But there was one, Lily Balin, who told Megyn to do it, even though this could put her job at risk and she needed money to put a roof over her newborn baby’s head, but still I think she believed women had rights. A lot of people were afraid about their jobs being at risk at the network. If this meant it was going to be the end of Fox, it would also mean a lot of people might be on the unemployment line.
Nicole Kidman was exhausted and needed a break around the time “Bombshell” came her way. Nicole thought “Bombshell" would be hard to turn down and she needed a second opinion. Nicole was working with Meryl Streep on season 2 of “Big Little Lies” and she asked Meryl if she should play Gretchen Carlson. Meryl Streep thought “Bombshell” shouldn’t be something to miss out on because it is sending a message. Nicole thought Meryl had a good point and so Nicole was in.
Gretchen Carlson is an interesting person. Gretchen once said she has been fighting for women all her life. Like Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson wasn’t involved with “Bombshell”. Gretchen received an apology and a lot of money after Roger Ailes went down, but she also had to sign a non disclosure contract with Fox to not share her story in every way like books and interviews. And that is shown at the end of “Bombshell”. But Gretchen believed her story would get out somehow and “Bombshell” shows what she might have went through. Because there’s not a whole lot of details on Gretchen you don’t see a lot of scenes with her. Judging by the way Gretchen is in “Bombshell” she was never afraid to speak what was on her mind on live television and she always did it with a positive attitude. But being herself cost Gretchen her job. Because of that, Gretchen put down the foot and sued Roger Ailes for sexually harassing her. And she became the first woman to speak out. Gretchen knew what she was doing. Gretchen you could also say is a big believer in things. Gretchen knew other women would join her in her fight to expose Roger Ailes. Out of all the women in “Bombshell”, Gretchen is the one with a strong spirit and she shows these women that they can be strong spirited too.
Gretchen Carlson looks like she was proud of Megyn Kelly for being brave enough to speak against people like Donald Trump and Roger Ailes. “Bombshell” shows a scene where Gretchen is watching Megyn go to war with Trump at the Debate. It took a lot of balls to do that on national television. And then later on when women are starting to come forward, Gretchen is proud to see Megyn being one of the ladies to make a stand, even when she had mixed feelings about doing it.
“Bombshell” is all about showing the women’s point of view. A lot of the men in “Bombshell” are disgusting pigs who demand sex from the women if they want a job. The thought of doing something that you weren’t comfortable with in order to become successful is sickening. There’s a scene showing a man in charge offering a woman a position she has been wanting forever, but she turns it down after refusing to go to bed with him. She feels getting the job you want isn’t worth selling yourself to a jack ass and she is positive about it. It’s good that she doesn’t give in even though she loses her job, but something might come her way.
Before there was even any thought about who should direct “Bombshell”, Jay Roach was already interested after Charlize asked his opinion on her playing Megyn Kelly. Charlize even gave Jay the script so he could know all the details on the part. Jay not only told Charlize to play the part, but told her he had an urge to direct “Bombshell”. “Bombshell” really stands for something and Jay loves justice.
Margot Robbie’s character, Kayla, is a fictional character, but she is based on women who worked at Fox and wanted their identities to be kept hidden because even though they wanted to speak out, still they don’t want too much attention. So screenwriter Jay Roach combined them together as one character. Margot felt a huge responsibility in telling this story for the women Kayla is based on. Margot never met with any of those women, Charles Randolph interviewed all of them and got all the information Margot needed. But Margot did feel it was important to talk to women who were sexually harassed, whether they worked at Fox or somewhere else and Margot knows women who have been through that. Margot was both fascinated and moved by what she was hearing while listening to each one of her friends' stories.
Kayla starts off working for Gretchen Carlson’s station, then she gets another job in the building, hopefully to get promoted to a news anchor by Roger Ailes. Kayla is nervous at times because working at Fox is all she ever dreamed of and she wants to make it to the top. Kayla manages to meet with Roger Ailes. Roger acts kind at first, but deep down you know there’s a monster in him. He’s like Pennywise in the “IT” franchise, acting all nice to kids, but that’s just to lure them in so he can kill them. Roger has Kayla stand up so he can get a good look at her and then asks her to pull her skirt all the way up. Kayla is not the same after that. It’s like Roger took her soul. That scene wasn’t easy to shoot because it is supposed to be disturbing. Jay Roach made sure they didn’t shoot too many takes of that scene because he was thinking about others, his cast, his crew and he didn’t want this to be too hard on them. Jay made sure everything was prepared for one take so that way they could shoot as less takes as possible. Jay even warned Margot Robbie what she was in for. That scene makes you feel disgusted and that’s the point of it.
Kate McKinnon I think of as a person who is nothing but fun after seeing her work and she shows she is fun in “Bombshell”, but she also shows more than that. Kate’s character, Jess Carr, helps Kayla get to know her new workplace and they become best buds. Jess is there for Kayla to help her get through things. But there is one thing Jess can’t help Kayla with and that is listen to the fact that Kayla just did something that made her feel like she just got stabbed in the back. Kayla tries to explain what she just went through and Jess tells her to try and keep her mouth shut. Every woman working at Fox knew the ugly truth about Roger Ailes. And even though they are not proud of what they had to do for Roger, still he gave them what he promised….careers. The women had to do what they did to keep their jobs. Jess understands what Kayla is going through, but she doesn’t know the pain she is feeling. Things started off great between Jess and Kayla in the beginning. Another thing about Jess is she’s a lesbian and she’s afraid if that would effect her job. Kayla feels there is nothing wrong with Jess’ choices in her personal life, it’s who she is as a person that matters. Jess has been nothing but good to Kayla since Kayla started her new job and the both of them were all smiles before Kayla walked into a nightmare. Jess cares for Kayla, but she also has her job to think about and there’s nothing she can do because she is scared too.
Kayla is living in a nightmare and she can’t hide the truth on the outside. Kayla tries to pretend that nothing is wrong, but she can’t ignore the fact that she is haunted by what happened between her and Roger Ailes. Kayla can hardly take it. But Kayla finally has someone to talk to when Megyn Kelly goes to ask her questions on if Roger sexual abused her. Kayla can’t hide the truth. She has fear in her eyes and they speak the truth. Kayla then becomes confused after Megyn tells her she too was sexually abused. Kayla thinks Megyn could have done something, but Megyn had no choice if she wanted to make her dream come true. Kayla calls Jess and because they are not at work it is safe for Kayla to give all the details on what she is going through. Kayla gets all emotional over the phone and it hurts Jess to be hearing her story. I think Jess realizes what Kayla is feeling is worse from what she thought. Kayla knows deep down inside she wants Roger Ailes to go down.
Roger Ailes died before Charles Randolph started doing his research for his screenplay, but the women he interviewed were able to help describe who Roger Ailes was. Roger was a sexual predator, but there was also a lot of strong stuff to be said about him from the women Charles interviewed. John Lithgow wasn’t sure about playing Roger Ailes, even though he thought a project like “Bombshell” was great because John supports women. Roger sounded like a real ass hole to John and he is made to look like an ass hole a lot in “Bombshell”. And then later on it shows Roger losing his power and becoming a man who has nothing to defend himself with because he is outnumbered. Fox still stands and the only one who lost his job was Roger Ailes.
The women who were defending Roger in order to protect their jobs don’t have to pretend anymore now that they don’t have to worry about losing anything. They can now be themselves. Of course this was just the beginning. No one knew what the future had in stores. Kayla is feeling a lot better now, but her buddy Jess doesn’t know if she should reveal herself to be a lesbian at work. All Kayla wanted in life was to work for Fox, but after everything that has happened she thinks things more clearly and thinks about what is right. Kayla decides to leave Fox and Jess thinks it’s great that one of them had the strength to walk out the door with dignity.
The story of “Bombshell” was the start of women speaking up for themselves and exposing men of power as the perverts they are. It wasn’t easy at first, but today women everywhere are speaking up in order to make a change in the world. It meant a lot to Charlize Theron that Megyn Kelly saw “Bombshell” and Megyn herself got all emotional just watching it.
“Bombshell” is a lot to take in because it’s so powerful. And the ensemble of actors show strong performances. At the end of “Bombshell” it shows each woman showing a strong reaction to the breaking news story that women have won the battle. They don’t know what to think of this because it’s unbelievable. Kayla is pointing out that it makes each person think about a lot. My rating on “Bombshell" is five out of five stars.
