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Margot Robbie Says Her Bombshell Character Would End Up With a Woman
The BAFTA-nominated actress says she envisioned Kayla Pospisil's whole life, which ended with a happy queer relationship.
Warning! Minor spoilers for Bombshell ahead!
One of the more surprising moments of Jay Roach's Bombshell—which dramatizes the efforts of female Fox News employees to bring down abusive network honcho Roger Ailes—happens between Margot Robbie's character, Kayla, and Kate McKinnon's character, Jess.
Jess is a closeted producer on Bill O'Reilly's Fox show, while Kayla is an ambitious staffer on the same program. Jess takes Kayla under her wing and after a boozy dinner together, they hook up. Jess is not only a closeted lesbian, but a secret Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, while Kayla is a die-hard conservative who declares she's not queer even though she just had sex with a woman.
When envisioning the complicated Kayla, a composite character who suffers greatly under Ailes's sexual abuse and harassment, Robbie says she saw her ending up with a woman, though many years after her tenure at Fox. Robbie told Variety that Kayla compartmentalizes her attraction to women, seeing it as separate from her career ambitions and political leanings.
"And she is not going to acknowledge [her sexuality] until she’s 60," Robbie told the magazine. When fleshing out the character of Kayla, Robbie saw her marrying numerous men, having kids, and then ending up with a very specific woman. Robbie said she had a clear picture in her mind of "the woman that she eventually leaves them for."
In regards to putting her sexuality in a box, Robbie told PRIDE something similar last month. At the end of Bombshell, Robbie's worldview has changed and her faith in conservative institutions like Fox News has shattered. "I think Kayla was not ready, in this film, and at this stage of her life, to identify her sexuality. And I think that's something she's definitely compartmentalized, in fact, I think that's not something she would even deal with for decades to come, yet," Robbie told PRIDE's Raffy Ermac.
Roach, the director, was open to Robbie's interpretation of Kayla, and the actress stressed to Variety she needs to have full visions for the characters she plays. She even imagined Kayla and Jess going on a road trip after the events of Bombshell, with their differing political beliefs put to the test.
