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Post-twirl, Ailes tells Robbies character to hike up her minidress higher and higher.
We hear his breathing grow increasingly, discomfitingly labored.
For Kayla, the episode ends in tears.
Thats the weird trap hes laid for her.
And the women we interviewed while researching described that feeling.
It certainly was for me in the room.
Ive never filmed anything as excruciating.
(Theron also helped develop the material and co-producedBombshell.)
The above scene underscores both the ambition of the film and its inherent challenges.
The Stand up and give me a twirl sequence required a particular form of self-awareness.
This is one of those situations where you have to let Charlize and other female producers lead the way.
Jay and I had a couple of times where we were like, Maybe we can tone this down.
Maybe we can take this shot out, take that breathing down.
And the women on the team universally said, Do not touch a frame.
I did say to Charlize, Are you sure you dont want a woman to direct this?
The number of women directors in Hollywood is so small, its such an embarrassing statistic, he recalls.
She just said, Listen, I trust you and I trust the way youre coming at this.
Charlizes collaboration and power in the overall hierarchy was imperative.
It was just so clear this was going to be a team effort.
Charles and I didnt do anything without checking with her and our women producers and studio execs.
We would hear these stories about the spin, the director says.
Wed heard how fatherly he could be, jokey, and a good coach.
He would have good advice, and women would come into his office and feel very comfortable at first.
Then it would drift to this darker place.
There were good arguments about how disturbing Rogers breathing [should] be, says Roach.
I wanted the breathing to be unmistakably monstrous.
Jay did bring something to it thats specifically male, the writer says.
This is something weve tried to communicate and its a little delicate for us to do so.
But any harassment situation has two people in the room and historically, the perpetrator has been a man.
So to capture these situations, it takes both genders to think through how these things work.
