Margot Robbie might have followed you on Twitter, and you didn’t even know it.
The 29-year-old actress stars in Bombshell as Kayla Pospisil, a chirpy conservative news junkie who works at (and worships) Fox News. So to better understand Kayla and her fanaticism, the Australian Robbie created an anonymous Twitter account and followed as many young, right-wing American women as she could find.
“I didn’t grow up watching Fox News, and I didn’t grow up in the same place as [Kayla]… I was struggling to understand that point of view for a while, and Twitter ended up being the most useful tool,” Robbie explains. “Because people are extremely vocal on Twitter.”
Much of Bombshell is based in fact: Jay Roach’s drama chronicles the downfall of news тιтan Roger Ailes (John Lithgow), whom multiple Fox employees accused of Sєxual harᴀssment (allegations Ailes denied until his death in 2017). Charles Randolph’s script can be both humorous and unflinching, following some of Fox’s most famous female faces as they grapple with their own experiences with Ailes — including then headliner Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) and former Fox & Friends cohost Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman). Theron is uncanny as Kelly, while Kidman plays Carlson with a steely resilience — but perhaps most affecting is Robbie’s role as Kayla, a fictional composite character inspired by several of Ailes’ anonymous accusers.
“Kayla is an amalgamation of many women’s stories, and some of the specifics you see in scenes with her are taken from real-life interactions those women experienced,” says Robbie. Kayla begins the film as a loyal foot soldier in Ailes’ army, seeing Fox as not just an employer but part of a larger crusade to shape American morals. Her faith fades, however, once she’s subjected to Sєxual advances.