Charlize Theron is no stranger to a dramatic physical transformation. In 2004, she won an Oscar for embodying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster, a role that required prosthetics, false teeth and a swaggering gait. Then she played a miner fighting a sexual harassment case in North Country; a post-apocalyptic road warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road; a spy in Atomic Blonde; and a sleep-deprived mother of three in Tully. But, Theron’s latest chameleonic turn may be her most eerily convincing yet: in Jay Roach’s Bombshell, the actress plays Fox News host Megyn Kelly. With an angular bob, fake nose and a wardrobe of sheath dresses, she cuts a formidable figure and becomes an unlikely heroine in a powerful true story about exploitation in the workplace.

The drama zones in on the 2016 scandal that led to the downfall of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson, a prominent anchor who filed a harassment suit against Ailes, while Margot Robbie is Kayla, a fictional employee who represents an amalgamation of accusers. Roach weaves together their accounts of abuse and follows Kelly as she decides if she, too, can speak out against him. In her portrayal of the controversial TV personality, Theron is meticulous – an indelible mix of steely conviction and unabashed prickliness. “I’m not a feminist,” she says in one scene. “I’m a lawyer.”

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As Bombshell lands in cinemas in the middle of awards season, Vogue meets the actress to discuss her breakout performance, the #MeToo era and how Time’s Up is changing Hollywood.

What are the challenges of playing a prominent public figure like Megyn Kelly?

“I’ve played real-life people before but nobody this well known, in a contemporary sense at least. Whether you like her or not, she’s on the news, she’s in our lives and you know what she looks like and sounds like even if you don’t watch Fox News. As a person, she’s very specific – her voice, how she carries herself, who she is – so all of that felt a little overwhelming at first.”

How did you go about capturing her mannerisms and her voice?

“I watched and read as much as I possibly could, but I think sometimes just mimicking physicality can feel like you’re in a comedy sketch. I had to understand why she sounds the way she sounds, and that has to do with the emotional heart of the person. The more I got to know her through research, the more all of that stuff made sense to me. We were especially concerned about the voice. I work with this incredible woman, [the dialect coach] Carla Meyer, and for the first six weeks I wasn’t convinced we were going to get anywhere close to Megyn Kelly. There’s an element to her presentation and her voice that can sound somewhat outrageous. You have to commit to it and the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. After that, it became second nature.”

The physical transformation is incredible, too. Did it involve long stints in the make-up chair?

“We worked with [prosthetic make-up designer] Kazuhiro [Tsuji]. We only had 43 days to shoot, so nobody could do prosthetics for more than two and a half hours. My transformation was all about the eyes: there was an eyelid piece that went from my eyelash line to my brow line and into the side of my eye. We also did a small chin, some jaw pieces, a very small tip on the nose and then Kazuhiro moulded two plastic insert pieces in my nose to widen my nostrils. I got so used to having them in that by the end of the movie I forgot they were there.”

Kelly is also very divisive. Did you have reservations about that when you signed on?

“There have been things she’s said in the past that bothered me, so I really had to sit with it for a while. It was a conversation I had with [director] Jay Roach and he helped me see that this wasn’t a Megyn Kelly biopic. She was one part of a bigger story, a story that is historically important. I knew that she’d make a great character, but we’d have to show her with all of her sharp edges. Unfortunately, we still live in a time where a lot of people aren’t comfortable with women being abrasive. Jay wasn’t scared of that. I knew that if we could tell this story in a way that felt truthful and wasn’t trying to manipulate the audience into feeling emotion, then I could embrace it fully.”

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Did playing Kelly make you view her any differently?

“The conclusion I came to is that, in a weird way, we are similar. We’re both ambitious, we have great drive and want to succeed. Those qualities are applauded in men and not always applauded in women. I had empathy for that and I related to her. She wanted to be a rockstar at Fox and she did it while having to deal with a lot more than her male counterparts.

“Her moral struggle [about speaking out against Roger Ailes] was interesting, too. I never thought I’d be able to wrap my head around that because there’s a part of me as a woman that wants to believe that women will just support women. But, the complexities of her situation, the fact that she was renegotiating her contract, that she liked Roger – it was murky stuff. The more we hear these stories, the more we realise that these villains aren’t the quintessential villains we grew up with. They’re paternal, they’re great advisors, they invest and they do all the things you want your mentor to do. But, they also do things that are unacceptable. I think Kelly struggled with that.”

Bombshell is about the #MeToo era, but predates the 2017 Weinstein scandal. How does that play into the narrative?

“I think people forget that Time’s Up and #MeToo weren’t around when this happened. It elevates the stakes because when Gretchen [Carlson] went to see a lawyer and came forward, there was no support. There was no movement around this and she was utterly alone. She broke the story and she became the story. It’s something that no woman wants to be defined by, especially an ambitious woman who wants to be known for her work. All of the women involved had to face that. It was incredibly brave – now it’s still hard, but it’s nice to see that you’re not alone.”

Time’s Up has now been active for two years. How have you seen it change Hollywood?

“When we make movies now, we spend a lot more time with Human Resources. People talk about these issues with more empathy. There’s an awareness and people are checking themselves more. But this idea that now you can’t joke anymore, that there’s no fun? It’s utter bullshit. You can have a good time and not take somebody down. I know people are concerned about over-correcting, but whenever I hear anybody say, ‘This is dangerous!’, I think you obviously have something that you’re trying to hide. If we go through a small adjustment period when we are over-correcting, does that matter considering that women have had to deal with this for years and years?”

Are there other things in Hollywood that need to change? You’ve spoken about the need for gender-neutral awards shows for instance.

“Somebody asked me about it on a red carpet and I said ‘Sure!’ It wasn’t on my agenda but I do think we need a nuanced conversation about what our gender boxes look like and why we have them. We’ve lived in this world where we wanted to believe that there are two boxes, but the spectrum is so much more interesting and more colourful than that.”

You co-produced Bombshell under your production company Denver and Delilah. What’s next?

“We’re in development right now on Atomic Blonde 2. If everything goes to plan, we’ll shoot in a year. We also shot a film last summer that’ll be coming out next year: a Netflix action film called The Old Guard. We have a lot going on in TV right now, too. We are really busy which is great, but it’s still a boutique company so the things we take on are really important to us.”

Bombshell is in UK cinemas on 17 January 2020.

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