Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free
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.
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their castShow all 17 1 /1717 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 17) Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell – Alexander, 2004 Age gap: 1 year
In one of the worst cases of Hollywood maligning any woman over the age of 30, Angelina Jolie was cast as Colin Farrell’s mother in the box-office bomb Alexander, despite the fact that the actors are just a year apart. That was probably the smallest of the film’s issues however, the biggest being Farrell’s appalling hair, and the fact that his Macedonian Greek king came with a thick Irish accent.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 16) Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart – Sabrina, 1954 Age gap: 24 years
In one of her most memorable and best roles, Hepburn starred as Sabrina Fairchild, the young daughter of the Larrabee family’s chauffeur, Thomas. While she begins the film in love with David Larrabee (William Holden), she ultimately falls for David’s older brother, Linus (Bogart). And by older, we mean a whole lot older. Bogart was 24 years older than Hepburn at the time, but by then, he was no stranger to age gaps. His marriage to his To Have and Have Not co-star Lauren Bacall, whom he met when she was 19 and he was 44, is one of the most famous Hollywood love stories of all time.
Paramount Pictures
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 15) Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart, 2009 Age gap: 28 years
Bridges stars as former country music star Blake, who is attempting to rebuild his life and career when he encounters reporter Jean Craddock (Gyllenhaal). The fact that Bridges is more than old enough to be Gyllenhaal’s father is never addressed in the film.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 13) Woody Allen and Juliette Lewis – Husbands and Wives, 1992 Age gap: 37 years
If Manhattan hadn’t established him as the king of creepy age gaps, Husbands and Wives will have done it. Allen’s character, Gabe, leaves his wife Judy (Mia Farrow) so he can flirt with his student, Rain (Juliette Lewis). This film was released shortly before Allen left Farrow in real life to marry her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, who is 34 years his junior.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 14) Colin Firth and Emma Stone – Magic in the Moonlight, 2014 Age gap: 28 years
Woody Allen strikes again. Stone stars in this whimsical American-French comedy set in the Twenties, about a magician (Firth) who falls in love with a young clairvoyant (Stone) he has been tasked with debunking.
Sony Pictures Classics
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 12) Johnny Depp and Amber Heard – The Rum Diary, 2011 Age gap: 23 years
Since Edward Scissorhands, Johnny Depp has rarely starred opposite a woman his own age – from a then-19-year-old Winona Ryder (when he was 28) to Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean. The biggest age gap, however, was opposite his now ex-wife Amber Heard in The Rum Diary – Heard was 25, while Depp was 48.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 11) Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper – Love in the Afternoon, 1957 Age difference: 28 years
Audrey Hepburn was almost three decades younger than her co-star Gary Cooper in Billy Wilder’s movie. She played a young student who overhears a plot to murder an adulterous business magnate (Cooper), and decides to warn him. The pair eventually fall for one another.
Allied Artists Pictures Corporation
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 10) Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway – Manhattan, 1979 Age gap: 26 years
In a classic case of art intimidating life, Woody Allen wrote and starred in this story about TV writer Isaac who embarks on a relationship with 17-year-old Tracy (Hemingway). Around two decades later, he was vilified after his then-wife Mia Farrow discovered he was having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 9) Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones -– Entrapment, 1999 Age gap: 39 years
While Zeta-Jones, 47, is married in real life to 72-year-old Michael Douglas, this is nothing compared to the age gap of almost four decades between her and co-star Sean Connery in the action heist Entrapment. He is quite literally old enough to be her grandfather.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 8) Tom Hanks 38 and Sally Field 47 – Forrest Gump, 1994 Age gap: 9 years
While male actors often get to play the love interest of much younger women, women of a certain age are immediately assigned the role of even a slightly younger man’s mother. In this case, Sally Field was cast as Tom Hank’s mother in Forrest Gump, despite being just nine years older than him.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 7) Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft – The Graduate Age gap: 6 years
While Hoffman is brilliant in arguably his most iconic role, the fact he looks far older than the teenager he's supposed to be playing softened the shock of his relationship with an “older woman”. Even more so when you remember that Anne Bancroft, his co-star and the “older woman” in question, is actually only six years older than Hoffman.
Moviestore Collection/REX
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 6) Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde - Third Person, 2013 Age gap: 32 years
It’s creepy enough that Liam Neeson was 32 years older than his co-star Wilde when they appeared together in this film about a man who has a steamy affair; worse when you realise that Wilde was just seven months old when Neeson released his breakout film, The Bounty.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 5) Jack Nicholson and Amanda Peet – Something’s Gotta Give, 2003 Age gap: 35 years
Although this film starring Jack Nicholson was about a music mogul, Harry, who has a thing for much younger women, it’s still pretty stomach-churning to see a then-66-year-old actor with Amanda Peet, who was 31 at the time. In a rare instance of Hollywood self-awareness, however, Harry realises how ridiculous his behaviour has become and pursues a woman closer to his own age, instead: his ex-girlfriend’s mother (Diane Keaton). It’s noteworthy that Nicholson had a number of sexual scenes with Peet, while Keaton – who also dates someone younger (hi, Keanu) – didn’t get anywhere near that much action.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 4) Keanu Reeves & Ali Wong – Always Be My Maybe, 2019 Age gap: 18 years
To be fair, Reeves was cast in a cameo for this film as a kind of iconic, and desirable, film star, so it wouldn’t really have worked with a younger (and therefore less established) actor. Still, considering the film is supposed to be about the relationship between childhood friends Marcus (Randall Park) and Sasha (Ali Wong), Reeve’s role took up a lot of space.
Netflix
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 3) Richard Gere and Winona Ryder – Autumn in New York, 2001 Age gap: 26 years
Gere is Will in this tale about a rich 48-year-old playboy who meets Charlotte (Ryder), a terminally ill 22-year-old and begins a relationship with her, even knowing she’s the daughter of one of his ex-lovers. Even more gross? The two are introduced in the film by Will’s longtime friend… Charlotte’s grandmother.
Getty Images
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 2) Ben Kingsley and Mary-Kate Olsen – The Wackness, 2008 Age gap: 42
In this film about a teenage drug dealer who trades marijuana for therapy sessions, Olsen had to film a steamy scene with a then-63-year old Kingsley (when she was 21). Kingsley, for his part, said kissing Olsen was “quite wonderful”. Not weird at all.
Rex Features
17 times films had ridiculous age gaps between their cast 1) Michael Keaton and Andrea Riseborough – Birdman, 2014 Age gap: 30 years Birdman was a phenomenon, a joy and a perfect example of weird and unexplained age gaps between male and female characters – in this case, the 30-year chasm between Keaton’s faded American actor and his girlfriend, Laura (Riseborough).
Getty Images
“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.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments