Let it be known that Charlize Theron isn’t looking for easy roles.

“Bombshell” starring Charlize Theron, 44, as Megyn Kelly in an engrossing newsroom drama about how Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit against then-CEO Roger Ailes sparked a wave of sexual harassment allegations at Fox News, including a lawsuit filed last week by host Britt McHenry, will be released nationwide on Friday. Nicole Kidman as Carlson and Margot Robbie as Kayla, a fictional young producer targeted by Ailes, complete out a trio of stunning performances.

“Bombshell” is also wary of sanitizing Kelly’s portrayal: The movie recounts the former Fox News host’s initial reluctance to speak out against Ailes, who allegedly sexually assaulted her and then became her advocate after being rebuffed. Kelly later added her name to a list of women who spoke to investigative outside counsel, assisting in Ailes’ removal from the network he founded, as featured in the film. (Ailes died in 2017, less than a year after stepping down.)

Kelly was both a hero to the right and a lightning rod for the left before joining the “Today” show in 2018 (a short-lived run that ended after her on-air defense of blackface as a Halloween costume, for which she later apologized), spurred by flashpoints like her feud with then-candidate Donald Trump, her on-air insistence that “Santa just is white” (both of which made the film), and her stance against maternity leave (which did not).

“I think this was the first time that I had to really put some of my personal issues aside,” adds Theron, who has two adopted black children. “And it wasn’t until I really zeroed in on that year and a half (of Ailes’ ouster) that it became way easier for me. I think if this was a biopic, I couldn’t have done it.”

“I still believe they have the right to be safe in their workplace. And so do all of us,” Theron argues, whether you sympathize with Kelly or Carlson.

Charlize Theron recalls Escaping creepy audition with movie producer: ‘It made me so angry’

Apr 29, 2019

Charlize Theron
CREDIT: ROB LATOUR/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Charlize Theron has confessed that her first ever audition was cut short after a big-name movie producer treated her badly.

On The Howard Stern Show, the Oscar winner remembered the event from the early 1990s, saying she was just 18 or 19 years old and new to the acting business at the time.

A modeling representative advised Theron, 43, to go to the producer’s residence in Los Angeles at 9 p.m. on a Saturday.

She claims that when she arrived at the man’s residence, he opened the door in his pyjamas.

“He had a very healthy ego, he felt very good about himself,” she said. “There was some kind of muzak playing in the house. He sat very close to me. That was strange. The drinking bothered me. I was like, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’”

She later asked if she might read a few pages from the screenplay, but he denied, preferring instead to simply “talk.”

“And then at one point, he put his hand on my knee, and that’s when I just went ‘oof.’ It’s crazy, and girls talk about this, where you just go blank. You don’t know what to do. But I left.”

“I don’t even know how I got out of the house, but I left. It would have ended really badly. I was driving my Ford Fiesta, that I was renting, up Laurel Canyon and I was so angry with myself that I didn’t say something. I was like, I’m not that kind of girl. Why did I not tell him to go f–k himself?’ It made me so angry.”

When Theron was approximately 27 years old, she stated the same producer offered her a job. She didn’t mince her words this time.

“I went (to the meeting) purely just to have my moment,” she said. “He said, ‘Nice to meet you,’ and I said, ‘No, we’ve met before.’ He had no recollection of it. And his producing partner was standing right next to him. And he was embarrassed.”

Stern and her Long Shot co-star Seth Rogen, who also participated in the interview, cried out “Oooh” when the actress did not divulge the producer’s identity, but did remark he “was a very big deal and is still a big deal.”

She ruled out being one of Harvey Weinstein’s purported victims while speaking out in 2017 amid the #MeToo movement uproar.

‘The women who have spoken about their abuse are brave and heroic and although I didn’t have a personal experience like this with Harvey Weinstein, I unfortunately cannot say I’m surprised,’ she said on Instagram at the time.

‘This culture has always existed, not just in Hollywood but across the world. And many men in positions of power have gotten away with it for far too long.’