Production began this week on The Loudest Voice in the Room, Showtime’s limited series about Roger Ailes, and People has the first look at Russell Crowe in character as the late Fox News chairman.
The limited series is adapted from Gabriel Sherman’s bestselling book about Ailes. The cast also includes Naomi Watts (playing Gretchen Carlson), Sienna Miller (Beth Ailes), Seth MacFarlane (Brian Lewis), Simon McBurney (Rupert Murdoch) and Annabelle Wallis (Laurie Luhn).
Ailes, the founder of Fox News, resigned from the network in disgrace in July 2016 weeks after former Fox News host Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, which he called “false” and “defamatory.” Ailes died in May 2017 at the age of 77.
When Showtime announced the project in June, it said, “To understand the events that led to the rise of Donald Trump, one must understand Ailes. The upcoming limited series takes on that challenge, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party’s de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in Ailes’ life, including an initial meeting with Richard Nixon on the set of The Mike Douglas Show that gave birth to Ailes’ political career and the sexual harassment accusations and settlements that brought his Fox News reign to an end.”
In addition to the Showtime limited series, Ailes will also be the focus of another upcoming Hollywood project: a movie about the sexual harassment scandal that ended Ailes’ career at Fox News Channel. In that film, Ailes will be played by John Lithgow.