The production designer on the forthcoming film Bombshell went to extreme lengths to accurately recreate the Fox News offices on set.
Bombshell explores the events surrounding the 2016 resignation of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, played by John Lithgow, after sexual harassment allegations were made against him.
Without the help of Fox News, the movie’s production designer Mark Ricker resorted to using a system of “moles” to build a set that looked like the media empire’s offices, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This included using any photos he could find online, including selfies from employees and foot fetish photos in which the office surroundings can be seen in the background.
Seeing as the female Fox News anchors all had to sport what costume designer Colleen Atwood called Roger Ailes’ “good girl but with a wink” look – tight dresses and high heels – pictures of the presenters’ feet ended up on websites for foot fetishists.
“Ninety-eight per cent of the people who see the movie aren’t going to know what the inner offices look like, but the other two per cent of the audience will be the ones who worked there, and they will know,” Ricker said.
“I just wanted them to think, ‘Oh my God, how’d they get it so right?’”
Bombshell stars Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie as real-life Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, alongside fictional character Kayla Popisil.
After Kelly’s contract at Fox News expired in 2016, she filed a harassment suit against her former employer, encouraging dozens of other employees to come forward with their own stories.
Bombshell is released on 24 January 2020.
