During yesterday’s Ellen chat Bombshell star-producer Charlize Theron said that one of the motivating factors behind producing the film was “maybe for me to work on [it] as an actor.”
Theron didn’t mean precisely that. She meant to say that her company, Denver and Delilah Films, produced Bombshell in part so she could snag the lead role of Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News anchor, which is undeniably the strongest part in the film. The secondary goal, of course, was to lasso a Best Actress Oscar nomination, which seems fairly likely at this stage given the support of the top-tier Oscar blogaroos (i.e., people like myself and Sasha Stone and the general Gold Derby gang).
Right now the strongest nominees for the 2020 Best Actress Oscar are Theron, Judy’s Renee Zellweger and Marriage Story‘s Scarlett Johansson.
D&D’s Beth Kono and A.J. Dix listed as the film’s top two producers.
Sidenote: Despite my having stated on 9.20 that people need to be gently persuaded not to use the words “amazing,” “awesome” and “incredible”, Theron used all three (and actually said “incredible” twice) during the first 60 seconds of her Ellen chat. I’m not pointing fingers at Theron as much as reminding that these words are a bigger problem than most of us realize, and that a heightened amount of vigilance is required.
In case you haven’t heard, BOMBSHELL is *terrific.* Charlize’s Megyn is eerily spot-on; Margot is just as Oscar-worthy; Lithgow, Kidman and McKinnon are just right; & I LOLd at many references/Estrich/Pirro. Think THE BIG SHORT but about Fox News rather than credit default swaps. pic.twitter.com/zM0VZoHrTG
— Scott Feinberg (@ScottFeinberg) October 16, 2019