An episode with ... Naomi Watts

Naomi Watts at the network premiere of The Loudest Voice. Photo / Getty Images

Naomi Watts plays Gretchen Carlson in The Loudest Voice — the new series about the rise and fall of Roger Ailes, former CEO of Fox News.

What are the challenges and responsibilities of telling Gretchen Carlson's story?

There's always pressure playing a real-life person. Particularly when they're still alive. It's such an important story, particularly from her point of view, because she inadvertently brought on the #MeToo movement. She had to endure so much: she was bullied, squashed emotionally, sexually harassed and backed into a corner in a way. Roger Ailes was a very powerful man. So, to see her take on that courage, it's very much in the world of female empowerment. Ten years from now we'll always refer back to her and the change that she created.

Fox News as we know is a right-wing news organisation that makes no bones about it. People say it's a "macho culture", a culture of power. What can you say about workplace culture that contributes to sexual harassment?

This place was famous for being misogynistic and keeping everyone in line, particularly women. Women were undervalued, they weren't getting the promotions that men were, they were told to wear skirts, told to look pretty and diminished in every possible way. There was a system in place that was all about supporting him [Roger Ailes]. He was very good at many things, at understanding what the media wanted and manipulating them and audiences. People just started drinking the Kool Aid and that led to the rise of his power and modern American conservatism. I think Gretchen Carlson was extraordinary in that she was able to push back and take him on. Now, I think things are changing. People are seeing that absolute power can be dangerous, and power reveals us and can corrupt us if not used wisely.

Gretchen was one of the first women to speak up. There was no #MeToo movement at play when she did. She spoke when nobody had spoken.

She was the first. She was the pioneer and that took unbelievable courage. I cannot imagine being in her shoes, taking on the most powerful man in her industry and working in that toxic, misogynistic environment for so many years. Everyone just had to play ball or you were gone. She did it with great dignity and strength. To me, that's such a great story for women and inadvertently created this movement. A year later, when the Harvey Weinstein story broke, everyone felt safe enough to tell their heartbreaking stories, one after the other. This has been going on for such a long time — far too long — and the fact this movement has taken place is wonderful, these stories that those women have experienced in their lifetime, in any career at least once, it's pretty systemic.

How have you noticed a change in your industry over the last three years?

I would say there has been a significant change take place and not necessarily one that I thought I would witness in such a dramatic way. I hoped it would happen over time, but I think a really powerful change happened in front of the camera and behind the camera in the last couple of years. That's the heartening side of these stories. There's the heartbreaking side that we're sitting here listening to these awful, awful stories that took place but now, the space has been made to listen and for change to take place. Female-driven stories are now getting financed, which they weren't before, I think more female directors are being hired and same goes for writers and other technicians in our industry. That's the good part of this story that's come to light.

What about the pressure to look a certain way — has that changed?

I think that's always been there. There was a time when we were told come the age of 40, it's all over. And that's changed. In terms of being told that we have to look good, I think we want to look good, but we want to be taken seriously and there's no reason that the two things can't co-exist. For the red carpet, I want to look my absolute best and I use professional help to create something that looks good! It's not because I've been instructed to — I make that choice myself. I'm in charge of the decision making in terms of how I present myself.

You and Russell Crowe are friends and you've worked together before. How do you approach going head to head in roles which are so deeply in opposition?

Russell and I have a history and that definitely helped. It's nice to have that history, that foundation, that trust - especially given we're adversarial. He's playing this very powerful character and I'm playing someone who's the recipient of abuse. It can be scary with those dynamics but we're both professionals, we know what we're doing — it's not our first rodeo. There's a level of trust. Russell's incredibly respectful. Every time he put his hands on my body, he would ask permission and it was a highly concentrated set because of the nature of the story and how sensitive it was. Every step of the way there's eye contact: 'You good with this? You good with that?' That's the code of respect that goes on between the two actors and Russell and I certainly have a shorthand. We take our work very, very seriously. Not to say there's not room for an icebreaker joke here and there.