When Anne Morgan began working as the head
Bombshell‘s Oscar-Winning Hairstyles Told A Bigger Story About Fox News
of the hair department on the new film Bombshell — about the accounts of sexual harassment that helped bring down Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes — she hung an image on the wall of her trailer for inspiration. Really, it was several images of actual female Fox News anchors assembled side-by-side, forming a grid. They all looked nearly identical: white, thin, and blonde.
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9486/Home/_HD1080P
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9529/Home/2021HDThe_Yin_Yang_MasterHD
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9559/Home/_HD2021
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9586/Home/__Gatao__The_Last_Stray__2021
https://csupalliativecare.instructure.com/eportfolios/2854/Home/3HD2021___HD1080P
Morgan wasn’t the only one who spent time dissecting how the typical Fox News anchor looked. Back in 2014, media outlets, including this one, pointed out the overwhelming blondeness (and whiteness) of the women at Fox News at the time. But the favoring of blonde hair extended far beyond the network. That year, Jennifer Berdahl, sociology professor at the University of British Columbia, started conducting extensive research on the disproportionate percentage of blonde women in high-level positions. Her research, which was released the same year that Bombshell takes place, showed that 48 percent of female chief executives at S&P 500 companies and 35 percent of female senators were blonde.
But at Fox News, where a little more than half of the anchors at the time were blonde, it made particular sense. In 2017 — the year after Ailes stepped down and also the year that he died — Amy Larocca defined the Fox News blonde in New York Magazine: “The Fox blonde is, in the end, conspicuously unnatural,” she wrote. “She is less blonde as sexy and more blonde as safe. This blonde is a matronly blonde, a suburban soccer mom who makes sure everyone buckles up in the backseat of the minivan.”
https://csupalliativecare.instructure.com/eportfolios/2855/Home/STAND_BY_ME_A_2__A2_2020hd1080p
https://bruningdavenport.instructure.com/eportfolios/3760/Home/__2021____4kbluray
https://bruningdavenport.instructure.com/eportfolios/3762/Home/TW_3__detective_chinatown_32021_
https://bruningdavenport.instructure.com/eportfolios/3764/Home/TW___Hd20211080p
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9622/Home/_a2___2020__STAND_BY_ME_Doraemon_2_
Bombshell centers on the stories of three of these blonde women, each at a different place in her career at Fox News. Two are based on real people: Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), who is preparing to sue Ailes (John Lithgow) after years of documenting her experiences with sexual harassment, and Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), who is being attacked by Donald Trump after confronting him during a 2015 Republican presidential primary debate. The third woman is fictional: Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie), an evangelical millennial from Florida who starts out working on Carlson’s show but has dreams of becoming an anchor. There is also another fictional blonde, but one who wants to stay behind the camera: Jess (Kate McKinnon), a producer who isn’t out at work, both as a lesbian and as a liberal.
In the film, blonde hair does not exist just to satisfy the proverbial conservative viewer; it exists as part of Ailes’ reported vision for Fox’s female on-air talent: sex appeal. The real-life Ailes allegedly preferred his anchors to have long legs meant to be ogled on-air through translucent desks, large breasts, and very often, blonde hair — though Fox did and does have successful non-blonde anchors, too.
On top of this, Ailes was known for allegedly pitting female hosts against one another — the implication being that if you won’t fall in line, another stiletto-wearing woman would. While a spokesperson for Fox News told CNN Business this past October that the company no longer functions the way it did under Ailes, saying that it has worked to change company culture, grow the HR department, and implemented a zero tolerance misconduct policy, the network portrayed in the film is in serious need of reform.
That’s why, when Morgan began designing how the film’s female anchors would look on-camera, the Ailes effect was top of mind: “The directive I gave my team is that the women of Fox look like dolls,” Morgan said over the phone from Los Angeles. “[They are Roger Ailes’] version of dolls, his slowly curated
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9646/Home/_2021__HD1080P
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9788/Home/_2021_____The_Soul__HD_
https://nbprep.instructure.com/eportfolios/9800/Home/__2021___I_Missed_You_HD
https://csupalliativecare.instructure.com/eportfolios/3660/Home/HKTW_2021
and cultured view of what these women should look like.” The film’s script nods to this, too. When Robbie’s Kayla begins a new on-air role, she arrives at her desk with pageant queen hair, garish stage makeup, and a black-and-white bodycon dress. “Wow! It’s Anchor Barbie,” quips Jess (McKinnon) from across their shared cubicle.
Morgan and her team of five stylists worked with 20 wigs, plus extensions, to bring these blondes to life. Robbie and Kidman wore one wig each, Theron wore four, and the rest were worn by supporting characters (excluding McKinnon, who appears with her natural hair dyed). The goal was to have each character’s hair help illustrate a generational shift at Fox: “Gretchen came before Megyn, and in our story, Kayla comes after Megyn,” said Morgan. “The passing of the baton, if you will.”
