Viewers were shook when the first trailer for Bombshell came out and Charlize Theron looked eerily similar to the real Megyn Kelly. The film, out now, tells the story of the sexual harassment allegations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes that were brought against him by women working at the company, including Kelly. But, just because her story and that of other real women are included in the movie, Megyn Kelly was not involved in Bombshell’s production and the thoughts she’s shared on it so far make clear that she would have done things differently. On December 13, Kelly posted an Instagram of her son looking at a Bombshell poster in a movie theater. The TV host explained that after taking her kids to see Frozen II, one of them saw the poster and thought that Theron was actually his mom. “The ad confused him because it appears to show a picture of me,” Kelly wrote. “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.”
Kelly went on to mention her 2016 memoir, Settle for More, in which she writes about her allegations against Ailes. (Ailes denied the allegations prior to his death in 2017.) “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,” she continued on Instagram. She called watching Bombshell “an incredibly emotional experience” and added that she would be sharing more of her thoughts about the film in the future.
This is not the first time Kelly has spoken about Bombshell. In September, she told the Daily Mail of Theron playing her, “She seems smart, seems like a good mom, so I could do worse.” At that point, she hadn’t yet seen the film and said she wasn’t sure if she would watch it. Kelly’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, also commented on the film in an article for The Hollywood Reporter about some former Fox News employees who signed non-disclosure agreements breaking them in order to speak to the filmmakers. (Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson is one woman who signed an NDA, but she’s made clear that she didn’t break it and has shared her feelings on these types of NDAs as a whole.)
“Megyn has never met or spoken to Charlize, and she did not sell the rights to the book. In fact, Megyn was as surprised as anyone when the trailer dropped.”
Bryan Freedman told THR.
It remains to be seen where and when Kelly will share the additional comments she promised in her Instagram post. After her NBC show was cancelled last year following remarks she made about blackface (which, to be clear, were added to the list of other offensive comments she’s made throughout her television career), Kelly hasn’t landed another TV gig. As the New York Times reports, she has posted interviews she produced herself to Instagram and YouTube, and during an October appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show teased some sort of a comeback. Maybe she didn’t have a say on Bombshell, but it sounds like she might be taking advantage of a timely opportunity to put herself out there once again.
