How much Fox News did you have to watch coming into this?
A lot. More than I’ve watched in my entire life. It was very compressed. You know, we had loops of it. You just kind of got used to it in that way, which was funny.
How would you describe the quintessential Fox News look—for women especially?
The look I was going for was a dress that’s body conscious just enough. It’s not too short, but short enough that when they sat down, you got a shot of someone’s leg. Necklines were inviting, but not obvious. It’s sort of like sexy without being obviously sexy, which Roger really understood—that it’s good to leave enough to the imagination, but suggest. That was where we went with it.
I love the scene where they go into the dressing room and you realize there’s a Fox News anchor uniform.
That came from a real picture that I saw, a real research picture of somebody in their office. It seems that those people don’t work in those clothes all day long, so that was sort of how they did it.
Do you have a favorite look or scene?
The scene in the first trailer of the three of them in the elevator is so powerful. I really like that a lot. And I think that the devastating scene of Margot and John is an incredible scene in the movie. You know, it’s a movie that’s not about clothes. They just have to be believable. So it’s not like I had a big costume moment in the movie, but I really enjoyed working on it.
Margot’s character goes through the biggest story arc with her character. Is there any way you translated that with her clothing?
I tried to. She starts as coming from the South, so I made wraparound dresses that kind of looked like what somebody who doesn’t know better thinks is really classy. Simple, younger things. And then, she’s a quick study, so when she looked around her and saw what everyone else was wearing, she gradually stepped it up. She always had the little slightly Christian vibe to it. There’s a modesty and restraint to her, and I think her performance reflects that. It helps make the moment that she [has with Ailes] even more horrible.
I’m curious with the shoes, was there a specific heel height or anything in sourcing those?
High. Nothing was under three inches, let’s put it that way. Margot’s had a slight platform, because she was standing next to two women who are six feet tall in their bare feet. Charlize and Nicole were in three-and-a-half inch, and Margot was probably in three-and-a-half inch but with an inch platform. They were in very high shoes, and they all wore them really bravely the whole time. Sometimes people are like, “Oh God, do I have to wear those?” But they were great. They went for it. They were so into it, and their support of each other was tremendous.
Anna Moeslein is a senior editor at Glamour.
