When deciding whether or not to play former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in the upcoming film Bombshell, Nicole Kidman turned to good pal Meryl Streep for advice.
“I was shooting Big Little Lies [season 2] when I got the script,” says Kidman, 52. “I was sitting on the set with Meryl Streep and I said to Meryl, ‘should I play Gretchen Carlson?’ She said, ‘absolutely.’”
The movie — which also stars Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly,and Margot Robbie as a Fox News worker — tells the story of the women who claim they were sexually harassed by former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, played by John Lithgow. Kelly and Carlson, both former employees of the network, claimed sexual harassment from Ailes during their careers.
After Streep’s approval, Kidman began doing more research on the role.
“I consider myself well rounded, up-to-date and aware of particularly these issues, but I didn’t know a lot about Gretchen,” Kidman said during a Q&A with Theron and Robbie following a screening of the film Sunday night in Los Angeles. “I would hope that through the course of telling this story people feel that they can speak up and be heard.”
Streep and Kidman starred together in the second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies and are set to reunite for Ryan Murphy’s Netflix musical adaptation of Broadway’s The Prom.
Bombshell hits theaters December 20.
