Actress Charlize Theron said Tuesday she had some ambivalence about portraying former Fox News star anchor Megyn Kelly in the movie "Bombshell" as she doesn't agree with her politics, but she does defend her right and the rights of others to have a workplace that is safe from sexual harassment.
"I don't think that I need to like her in order to believe that she deserves to be safe when she goes to work," Theron told CNN's "New Day." "I think that's what's so great about the subject matter. We don't get to cherry-pick this for people. I want all women to be safe. So that was really ultimately what this story was about."
But as an actor, she added, "you can't take anything on until you can make peace with yourself that you can get to a place where you can put your own personal preconceived ideas on the sideline. It doesn't mean I'm sympathetic, but I want to understand as best I can why somebody is behaving the way that they are."
"Bombshell" tells the story about the sexual harassment that had been going on at Fox News under former chief executive Roger Ailes, including his actions toward anchors such as Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and others.
Theron said the transformation to make her more resemble Kelly was a dramatic process that put her through a "lot of wrongs" until the "right one" was reached.
"I wore two pieces on my eyes that went from my eyelid to eyebrow because our eyes were just shaped so differently, and I would say those two pieces changed my face the most," said Theron. " I have a very deep eye bed. She doesn't. That just really helped change and then contact lenses. She has like beautiful indigo blue eyes."
She said she also worked for hours to sound like Kelly, including working with a voice coach while "dissecting" the former anchor's voice.