In 1994, actor Charlize Theron was just starting out in show business when a famous director invited her to an audition at his home. When she showed up, she found the director drinking and in his pajamas. He touched her leg; she apologized and left in a hurry.
Driving away, Theron became angry — with herself: "I just kept hitting the steering wheel," she says. "I put a lot of blame on myself ... that I didn't say all the right things, and that I didn't tell him to take a hike, and that I didn't do all of those things that we so want to believe we'll do in those situations."
It wasn't until years later that Theron understood her experience as s-xual harassment. It's a subject that she's taking on in her latest film, Bombshell, which follows the women of Fox News who came forward to accuse then-CEO and chairman Roger Ailes of s-xual harassment. Theron is one of the film's producers and also plays former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who wrote about Ailes' unwanted s-xual advances in her 2016 book, Settle for More.
Theron says she felt conflicted about playing Kelly: "We have different points of view on a lot of issues," she says. "And she has definitely said things in the past that I took issue with."
Nevertheless, Theron embraced the opportunity to explore what she calls the "gray area" of s-xual harassment: "It's not always physical assault. It's not always rape," she says. "There's a psychological damage that happens for women in the everyday casualness of language, touch or threat — threat of losing your job. Those are things I've definitely encountered."
