Money for the 1st time in 2 decades for federal research on gun safety under a reported deal the spending bill set for a House vote as soon as tomorrow would provide 25000000 for gun violence research divided evenly between the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Here's N.P.R.'s Martin costly federal spending on gun violence research has been limited by Republican and Ari opposition to anything that looks like advocacy for gun control especially by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jeffrey Swanson is a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for gun policy and research I don't think it sends a message it's the 1st time in 25 years that the c.d.c. Has been able to devote this amount of money specifically to gun violence without having to you know hide it under the radar the c.d.c. Already collects data on firearm deaths and other agencies do gun violence studies but Swanson says this money could expand research into new topics such as the effectiveness of red flag laws which temporarily remove guns from people at risk of violence Martin n.p.r. News stocks climb sharply higher on Wall Street today the rally driven by reports showing better than expected economic growth in China the Dow is up 100 points the Nasdaq rose 79 points today this is n.p.r. . The Broadway community gathered today in tribute to late director producer Harold Prince Prince had 21 Tony Awards and dozens of shows to his credit including West Side Story Fiddler On The Roof Sweeney Todd and Phantom of the Opera reporter Jeff Lunden was in the audience on the stage of the majestic Cedar where Phantom Of The Opera has been playing for the past 31 years Prince's friend and frequent collaborator songwriter Stephen Sondheim said it was an equation to quote celebrate hell not to mourn him and a parade of Broadway vets from composers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jason Robert Brown to actors Carol Burnett and Laura Linney shared anecdotes and others saying songs from the shows he directed including Joel Grey who sang Ville Coleman from hell Prince's 1966 hit Cabaret. With. The director died on July 31st at the age of 91 for n.p.r. News I'm Jeff Lunden in New York 5 Snowmobilers are safe after an overnight rescue in a snowstorm there remote lake in Montana was a look how many sheriff's office says one of the riders fell through the ice and others got wet trying to pull the snowmobile out of the lake the riders build a fire to deal with freezing temperatures while they waited for help took 9 hours for rescuers to cut a path through several feet of fresh snow to reach them Sheriff's officials say everyone is Ok and the fire likely help them survive crude oil futures prices continue their upward climb oil up $0.14 a barrel to end the session at $6020.00 want to barrel the New York Mercantile Exchange I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the n.p.r. Shop where visitors can browse Public Radio nerd and n.p.r. Gear at npr dot org and the Arcus Foundation dedicated to the idea that people can live in harmony with one another and the natural world. This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross my guest Charlie's Theron plays Megan Kelly in the new film bombshell it's based on the story of how Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued Roger Ailes In July 26th teen for sexually harassing her within days Megan Kelley who was then a Fox News host and several other women at Fox came forward with their stories about a couple of weeks after Carlson filed her lawsuit Ailes was forced to resign from his positions as chairman and c.e.o. Of Fox News Carlson is portrayed by Nicole Kidman in the film John Lithgow plays Ailes some of the characters in the film are fictional there and as one of the producers of the film she grew up on a farm in South Africa during the apartheid era in her late teens she came to New York and studied at the Jeffrey School of Ballet after injuries put an end to her dream of becoming a ballerina she turned to acting in 2003 she won an Oscar for her starring role in Monster as a prostitute and serial killer in the post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max Fury Road she played Furioso who rescues young women from the villain who's keeping them as slaves for breeding children in young adults she played an author of popular young adult novels who's in her thirty's but has the emotional maturity of a teenager in the film totally her character was overcome by postpartum depression let's start with a clip from bombshell this is just after Gretchen Carlson has sued Ailes alleging she was fired from her program for refusing l. Sexual advances which he denied at the time Megan Kelley is talking with people who work on her show who are reading tweets about Carlson's allegation including this tweet from Fox News's Brit Hume Why didn't Gretchen quit and sue instead of suing only after she got fired why didn't she complain why didn't she complained really he means the anonymous hoeing there is. Yeah I did the harassment seminar twice and ever heard about they have a contractual right to monitor our communications line in this building as like a complaint bugs occupy Paris. So quit telling women go on speak up for yourself just know the entire network is with Roger no one will believe you they'll call you a liar Oh and as for your career you want to Simon's an air time go ahead haul the paranoid man who decides your salary a pervert and do that on his hotline he controls on a phone he has a contractual right to record you think women are idiots and like somebody strip you naked and they want you to walk through this office just to prove it. Ok. Can I see you for a minute. Shirley's Theron welcome to Fresh Air and congratulations on your performance in the film I'm guessing you're pretty conflicted about Megan Kelly and her role in you know political culture on the one hand I'm sure you admire her for speaking out about Roger Ailes on the other hand I would imagine you disagree with her politics so what was it like for you to play her with that kind of conflict in mind yes you're very correct in that statement we're very different women we have different I think points of view on a lot of issues and she has definitely said things in the past that I've had issue with that I took issue with but the focus really was to tell the story of what these women at Fox I mean I think the cast of characters are so unusual that the story came from that world from them a lot of these women have been somewhat hypocritical when it comes to sexual harassment and have made statements about sexual harassment but it's not necessarily been about really bettering the workplace for women or just for women in general all of that was so unusual for me but that really was the importance of the film and why I think we wanted to make it and once eyes erode in on not and I found space in the film for us to show Meghan with some of those issues I felt like that was a true representation of not just her but I think of the world of Fox and what they kind of send out into the world you can't make an Kelly's voice I think perfectly and so let's hear her speak for a minute and this is from like her most famous broadcast moment in 2015 during the 1st Republican presidential debate that was hosted by Fox News and she asked a now famous challenging question to candidate trump that led him to tweet after very disparaging things about her including that she had blood coming out of her. Were ever so here's Megan Kelley asking the question to trump at the debate you call women you don't like that Hague's dogs slobs and disgusting animals your Twitter account only root as you know Donald. Was. For the record it was well beyond Rosie you know so I'm sure your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks he once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees does that sound you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton who is likely to be the Democratic nominee that you are part of the war on women. Ok that was Megan Kelly in 2015 I have to say and I talked to Macon Kelly about this when I interviewed her it's just chilling to hear the audience kind of applauding when he's mocking Rosie O'Donnell and kind of mocking the whole idea of you know disparaging women. Any Anyways what I wanted you to be listening for is her voice so that you could tell us what you hear when you hear her voice that you knew you wanted to pick up on in portraying her. Her voice is very distinctive she speaks in this very deep register I sound like I have a deep voice David it's because I'm a little under the weather I actually don't have a very deep register and so that was a very difficult thing to kind of get as low as she has she goes I actually stressed my vocal chords so much that I couldn't speak for 3 weeks in pre-production so you know just what rehearsing you stressed your voice yeah yeah just practicing her sounds and I work with this incredible woman Carla Meyer here in Los Angeles and she me with her speech patterns and with her what I had noticed was that one thing she talks about in her book was that one of the best the pieces of advice that she got from Roger Ailes was that he told her that she spoke too fast and for her to really slow down when she was on air and pronounced announce and be a newscaster and so when you watch her on the telly fall and she starts the show she starts every with every word she's underlining every single word it's really interesting and then when she goes off script say she has somebody on the show and they're having a conversation and you know she feels strongly about making a point she goes back into this Meghan Kelly speed which is just insane I mean she speaks at a speed that is unbelievable and was. Is moments incredibly hard for me to even try and get close to but I think it was a good way for me to understand that when she felt emotional about something that was her natural place where she went and the newscaster in her was very specific to wanting to be taken seriously wanting to always remind the audience that she spoke from a place of authority knowledge she was always quick to remind people that she was a lawyer and I know she says the movie you say in the movie like to Roger Ailes I'm not a feminist I'm a lawyer Yeah I mean listen she made quite a meal out of that I she's she has said it numerous times she really rebuttals the idea that anybody thinks that she is a feminist she has I think said the word feminist to her feels that it just causes this kind of divide and separation which to me is just so crazy to think of always somebody like her thinking of the word feminist or being a feminist or feminism in that way but she just despised the word and always kind of brought it back to you know I'm an intellectual I want the world to know that I'm an intellectual. So how did you decide whether to use Megan Kelly in that now famous soundbite that we just heard or that you wanted to do it yourself and did her with her comment on her show on Fox News in which she reassured children that Santa Claus is white. So originally when in the script it was written that would be real footage that we would cut and the movie does this I think really seamlessly we cut from a lot of real footage to to our actors in the film and I threw it out as an idea to Jay Roach and to Charles Randolph are screenwriter that I would like to have shot at it I would like to try and do it myself and I'm really grateful that he gave me the shot I mean I worked really hard at it and that was one of the one times in the film that I really tried to mimic a down exactly to her speed to her cadence to every single sound of how she went about that outside of that I tried to have it be more emotionally and formed but that one I really tried to mimic exactly what she did so you didn't want people looking at the screen and comparing Megan Kelly with you in the same movie yeah I mean I also didn't want to take away from something that I think you know with everything that I've said about making Kelly earlier I have to say I mean that was one of those moments where I had to take a step back and just acknowledge that what she did that day was pretty impressive it was a great question it was a great question and she held her own and the fact that she was brave enough to go after him that way I think she's had several moments like that where I really acknowledge that she's incredibly good at what she does so let's talk about looking like Megan Kelly I mean the decision was made in the film to use prosthetics for several of the characters for you for a nickel Kidman as Gretchen Carlson and for John Lithgow as as Roger Ailes Can you talk about the decision to go with press that ix. It was a decision that I felt very strongly about and I have not done a lot of prosthetics in my career I think a lot of people think I did prosthetics on Monster and I didn't use absolutely no prosthetics on that film so my prosthetic experience has been really small but I felt strongly about it in this case because I time I would read the lines in the script I would and I would look at a mare. I just never felt like I fully believed that you would completely forget it just. I think it was a selfish reason I wanted to do it for myself I wanted to be able to lose myself in a way where I don't think I've ever done anything like that before and it's tricky because obviously I had very little experience in it and we realized pretty quickly that a lot of the prosthetics work that would be helpful in this transformation were concentrated around the eyes which for an actor is really frightening because we really utilize our eyes or that area a lot in just telling silent expression and so outside of contact lenses I wore 2 prosthetic pieces from my last line all the way up to my eyebrow line to make Mauler. It's not so much smaller she I have a natural. Quite wide bed on my eyelid where she doesn't her or her upper lip lid is much heavier and lays very low on her bottom lip and it really changes her eye shape and once we did that I mean it became very clear it was evident that we that was the way to go but it it also you know I had to spend some time with it because it really put a lot of weight on my eyes. And it was just thinking about day after day of glue around your eyes and lenses in your eyes and getting dry and all of those chemicals and removing them and if you don't apply them right you have to take them off again and they were in the beginning the 1st few days that we had an issue with an eyelid being glued so tight that I couldn't actually blink and then there were other times where we glued it a little too loose where I couldn't my eyelid couldn't open up it's very very intricate Well let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more if you're just joining us my guest to share Elise there and she's starring as Megan Kelly in the new film bombshell We'll be right back this is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air and if you're just joining us my guest is Charlene's Theron and she stars in the new movie bombshell as Megan Kelly and the movie is about how Gretchen Carlson came forward and sued Roger Ailes for sexual harassment and then several other women at Fox News including Megan Kelley came forward leading to Al's being forced out of his position as chairman and c.e.o. Of Fox News You've talked about in other interviews how your 1st audition ended up being with a sexual harasser. It was like you were told by I think like a modeling agency. Who knew that you wanted to act they suggested you go in this audition it was a Saturday evening that you were supposed to meet. The producer or director and director at his home he opened the door and he was wearing pajamas and had been drinking so so this was before today's level of public awareness this is before the me too movement it was before you had any reason to expect that it would be. Not the harasser who face consequences but you if you went public about it so can you describe what it was like to have to react on the spot when you saw the position he was in in his position pajamas and then instead of having you like read for your edition he touched your knee how do you know what to do in that moment you don't. You don't and I think for for people who have not experienced sexual harassment it's a very difficult thing to wrap their head around a woman yesterday we were doing a press junket and a female gender journalist said to me but don't you always have the option of just saying no and leaving the room and I think that is a mentality that a lot of people still have about sexual harassment that somehow when you find yourself in that position that very unfortunate position that you are going to do everything right you're going to say everything right you're going to be the hero in that scene and you're going to tell this guy exactly what a creepy is and you're going to March off into the sunset and that is just not the the the truth about a lot of these situations and I. Personally found myself This happened in 94 I personally found myself in. A situation where I wasn't even fully convinced that it was sexual harassment and I don't think I really knew that until way later in my career but what I did know was that I put a lot of blame on myself. And the sense that I was angry with myself that I didn't say all the right things and that I didn't tell him to you know take a hike and that I I didn't do all of those things that we so want to believe will do in those situations instead I very politely apologized and then I was in my car driving away and I just kept hitting the steering wheel and I was really emotional about it because I couldn't understand where this behavior came from I was raised with an incredibly strong mother figure my mother who you know I grew up watching her we're going to business where women weren't allowed to work and she worked in road construction at a time when no women worked in road construction and my whole life all I saw was men coming into her office and having meetings with her and so my my impression of the world was that that was just what you did and nothing in my past made me feel like well then of course this is why I would apologize and why I would kind of react in this meek way with this guy and not say anything I didn't know where that came from and it took me a really long time to realize that that was a cultural influence that it wasn't necessarily from how I was raised but it was almost like instilled in me that that's just kind of what you did you didn't rock the boat this was somebody who was going to maybe give you a job I was just starting out in the industry I didn't really know the ins and outs I literally was telling myself as I was driving there on a Saturday night at 9 o'clock well maybe that's how they do it and in the movie industry I don't know I've never done this he said I was the man maybe it's time and right that's all you only time he has so when you apologized to him What did you say do you remember. I I. I don't even think it was like a specific apology but I remember saying I'm sorry when I was trying to leave and that I made it like the apology about I'm sorry that I have to leave because I was trying to remove myself from the room and that in itself is just so unbelievably aft up you know that is a mentality that we have to really change within our culture within our girls. And yeah I mean I I had a very interesting. Experience with this man 8 years later where he actually offered me a job. And he is a very well known director and 8 years later I was found myself in a place in my career where I was actually getting offers and he offered me a job. And I knew I was going to take the job but I took the meeting because I felt like I finally had my opportunity I wanted to have that moment that I didn't get to have with him and his producer was in the meeting as well and he introduced me to him and he said no I want you to meet I said no actually we know each other he said oh I didn't know that I said you know I came to your house about 8 years ago and he wore silk pajamas and offered me a drink and rubbed my knee and I could tell that his producer felt incredibly uncomfortable and he was kind of taken aback taken aback and just said he kind of like moved on from the conversation like he just didn't want to address it which to me became very clear in that moment that it wasn't his 1st time that he had been doing this and maybe you know I think. Maybe other women of color had called him out and so his way of handling it was to just kind of like talk over it about the project. And it was unfortunately not the moment that I so want there was absolutely no reward in that moment for me I've heard this repeatedly and hearing other women's stories and that is the unfortunate thing about sexual harassment you never get that moment where you feel like the tables are reversed and now he's finally getting it and the closest we've ever gotten to it is to seeing people like Roger Ailes or Harvey Weinstein seeing some real consequences I don't I've never seen that in my entire career this is really the 1st moment in my life where I see that that maybe there can be real consequences for people with these actions. My guest is Shar lease there and she stars as Megan Kelly in the new film bombshell about the women at Fox News who brought down Roger Ailes after a break there and will tell us why she isn't naming the man who sexually harassed her early in her career and we'll talk about growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era and about the violent incident in her family when she was a teenager just before she left South Africa I'm Terry Gross and this is Fresh Air . I knew about our Family Foundation supports w.h.y. Wise fresh air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Viking dedicated to bringing the traveler closer to the destination Vikings new custom built ocean fleet offers a small ship experience with all veranda state rooms and shore excursions in every port Viking cruises dot com and from Simon and Schuster presenting the book based on the podcast from Mike Rowe the way I heard it shares stories about people from Mel Brooks to John Wayne along with tales from Mike so much the way I heard it is available now where books are sold. Support for Alaska Public Media comes from middleway cafe celebrating 25 years of contributing to a healthy balanced and sustainable life through food drink and community located in the heart of spin ard since 1994 and from Continental Subaru and the Subaru ascent with standard all wheel drive 3 row and seating for 8 with 19 cup holders learn more at Continental dash Subaru dot com. It's time Stephen Dubner the next Freakonomics Radio Why does tipping still exist there's a lot of social pressure to give a tip in that situation and what happens when a famous restaurateur tries to get rid of tipping point I think the biggest thing we've learned is that this is really tough That's next time on Freakonomics Radio Monday at 7 pm on f.m. 91 point one. This is Fresh Air I'm Terry Gross let's get back to my interview with Charlie's Theron She stars in the new film bombshell as Megan Kelly the new movie is about how Gretchen Carlson Megan Kelly and several other women at Fox News came forward about how they were sexually harassed by Roger Ailes the c.e.o. And chairman of Fox News leading to his ouster Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson who led the way by suing Ailes when we left off we were talking about how Charlie's Theron was sexually harassed by a film director when she went on her 1st audition for an acting role in 1904 you are obviously still not divulging the name of the director which I understand but tell us in your words why you're not disclosing who it was. So I actually did disclose his name Oh I think yes you don't know that because every time I disclosed his name the journalist made the decision to not write his name Oh and it goes to show just how deeply systemic This problem is. I remember the 1st time somebody asked me about Mike if I ever had a casting couch experience and I openly shared the experience and named him and and the person decided to not write his name so the story is out and when strangely when the Harvey Weinstein's story broke I for the 1st time ever Googled this story and the story came up everywhere it popped up everywhere and nowhere could you find this guy's name. And it was incredibly upsetting to me and I'm conflicted in the sense that I know that if I said his name again while I'm promoting this film that it would take over the importance of the story and that would become the story and I think there will be a time and a place where I will definitely share this again the way I have always been honest about it I have I don't have a desire to protect him but I also don't want him to overshadow this film right now and so there will be a right time where I will talk about this again and and I will say his name yes I understood was that incident that you mention with the director the only time you faced sexual harassment in the movie industry. To the extent that you're comfortable talking about this yes I mean what I love about this story of what happened at Fox And also I think now that we're hearing so so many other stories through the Harvey Weinstein of it all and I think the nuance of sexual harassment and the this wide spectrum that it lives in this gray area that it's not black and white it's not always physical assault it's not always rape that there is a psychological damage that happens for women every day casualness of language touch or threat threat of losing your job those things I definitely encountered but nothing physical that 1st one was physical but I've never experienced anything like that but I have I have definitely found myself in meetings laughing really loud at some guy's joke to make him feel good and may be having a feeling of I might actually lose my job if I don't do what is kind of being dictated here and it is important for us to if we want to rectify this issue to really understand that we have to look at all of the nuance of it that sometimes victims go back to. To the perpetrator that there can be an e-mail exchange that is really friendly that we have to understand why. Victims being of this way or because I think the outside opinion is if you do that then obviously there is no sexual harassment and it's in the complications this is complicated messy stuff we have to be able to get into the nuance of it until if we're really going to get to the crux of the problem. You sound to me like you do not have an accent you sound like you or you were born in America you grew up in South Africa on a farm describe a farm for us well it's what we call in South Africa small holding and so it was around I think 2530 acres my parents bought the land because they had a road construction company and they needed the land for all the machinery all the graders and rollers so we lived off the land but we it was an agricultural farm but we we survived off that farm I mean I my mom once a year would slaughter a cow and we would fill 4 freezers with that meat and that was what we lived off and all of our vegetables and fruit came from what we grew up on the land and so I had that kind of earthy experience while my parents ran this business this road construction business. Let me reintroduce you here if you're just joining us my guest is Shirley's there and she stars in the new film bombshell as Megan Kelly and she was just nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as Best Actress and congratulations on that thank you so much so let's take a short break here and then we'll talk some more this is Fresh Air. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Progressive Insurance committed to offering a streamlined shopping experience where home an auto can be bundled together now that's progress I've learned more progressive dot com for 1800 progressive and from Subaru with their Subaru share the love a vent now through January 2nd details on the not for profit organizations that it supports are at Subaru dot com slash share love it's what makes Subaru Subaru. This is Fresh Air and if you're just joining us my guest is Shirley's there and she stars as Megan Kelly in the new film bombshell which is based on the story of how Gretchen Carlson sued Roger Ailes the head of Fox News for sexual harassment and days later Megan Kelley and several other women from Fox News came forward about Ailes and then he was forced out of Fox within a couple of weeks so you grew up during the apartheid era Yeah. Were you exposed to black people during that year I mean it was apartheid I don't know if you even came in contact with people who weren't white so on our farm all of the workers everybody who worked in the company and it was a pretty substantial company all lived on the farm so my old childhood I was raised with calls us and Zulus insults it duz and all different cultures their children were raised with me on the property and I consider them my family I didn't really you know there was some isolation in the sense that we weren't really around in a lot of the big cities that I really understood fully what was going on as a child as a young child the information that I really got about what was happening came from my parents this was a conversation that was always kind of whispered around when you went to the neighbors house people were always talking about politics about elections. About all of these issues so I had that awareness but I you know I lived in an environment where that wasn't how my family treated any of those people I you know I slept with a lot of those families they babysat for my mom if they went out somewhere I would stay with them and so it was only until I was 12 that I were 13 that I went to an art school in Johannesburg where I really got to witness firsthand absolutely those atrocities of apartheid What were you taught about race in school. Who history was leaning very much into our white history. The heroes of our story of our founding fathers were all white and even though very much like I find our culture this climate that we're in right now with our polarizing political views in this country it was very similar in South Africa I had friends who had family whose father would be for apartheid. And ones who they found out that you know black people lived on our farm wouldn't let me come over for a sleep over and so there was a distinction and that not everybody was living this way but that it was very much thought of as people felt very strongly about it and then other people didn't feel and thought that there was a reason to fight this you know I I always wonder what my life would have been Mike if I grew up in one of those families if I was just an innocent child who was born into the family who like one of my friends who believe that apartheid was the right way of life I was just incredibly blessed that I was raised by you know especially my mother I was really kind of raised by single parent my my father wasn't around that much but by a mother who was just. Aghast by all of this I didn't really truly understood I think what any of this really did to me as a young child until I was in my mid thirty's and I went to therapy for the 1st time because of a relationship that was failing and what I discovered while in therapy trying to save my relationship was that I had a lot of trauma from being a young child growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era and can you tell us more about the trauma for you and and what you figure at figured out later about how you as a white person as an empowered person where were traumatized by apartheid and that's a lot to reconcile with when when you realize that you benefited. Under a. Administration a nation. A country because you had the right skin color I benefited my life was more comfortable because of the suffering of a lot of people who just by chance were born in the wrong skin color and that was a lot. Of that was a lot for me to carry it still is it is. I think it's something that I'll carry for the rest of my life so that's another South Africa question again the last years of apartheid there was a cultural boycott you know a lot of performers or and going there but there were a lot of like recordings and books that weren't available either because of the boycott against apartheid Oh because the government didn't allow it in because they were afraid that. Is all you know Author Terry and governments are afraid that it will open people's minds and that will work against the apparent Arion government what were some of the things you did not have access to either because of the boycott or because of the government. I had never seen a live performance like I've never I've never gone to see a rock concert or a. Musician play live. Until I was living in Europe I was 16 and I went to my 1st concert. So yeah nobody really came to perform in South Africa when I was in my teenage years. I remember vividly a teacher sneaking us in into a room and showing us 20 minutes of Stanley Kubrick's. What's the 2001 of and I remember I was 14 years old and all of us our minds were just blown I mean we had film but definitely we didn't have access to everything and I remember. That for some weird reason that film was something that everybody was talking about and I still to this day I don't know how this teacher got access to the 20 minutes that he shared with us but I just remember in that moment and then obviously later when I left and actually watched the full film that depriving people from from simple things like this with that feeling of feeling inferior that there somehow this danger that you know a film could like make you feel. And by the way that it could yes I do believe the . Great art can change people but it was just so it was so sad how old were you when you left and why did you decide to leave then I left 3 weeks after I turned 16 I was. One this modeling contest and one of the prizes was a trip to Italy. Too with a modeling contract in. My mom was just incredibly encouraging of me going. She felt like it was a great opportunity for not only you know the possibility of you know finding maybe something that would interest me or a life abroad or being able to like travel even if it was just. I had never been on a plane I had never seen anywhere we've never traveled before we drove you know to Durban and our car for 6 hours every holiday so. I think there was this moment that coincided with the political turmoil at the time this was in 91. And she said you should really take this opportunity and that's why I left I felt really bad my father had passed away. Just. A few weeks earlier and I didn't want to leave her alone she was going through a lot and she really kind of like pushed me out of the nest and she said you have to take this opportunity which it was incredible selfless moment that she gave me as a mother this opportunity let me reintroduce you here if you're just joining us my guest is Shirley's there and she stars in the new film bombshell as Megan Kelly will be right back this is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air and if you're just joining us my guest is Shirley's there and she stars as Megan Kelly in the new film bombshell you mention your father passed away this is a part of the story that I know you don't. I think you might not want to talk about so I'll just mention what happened and you can tell me if you like to talk about it or if you prefer not to. Your father came home drunk. One night and shot at you and your mother she got her gun and shot and killed him and that's how that's how he died I don't know if you're comfortable talking about that or Yeah no you know I listen I am I I think a lot of my. Any reluctancy that anybody has ever heard is just that this is usually the headline that people walk away from and I think what's frustrating is that the trauma around having an experience like that of course is quite surreal and and but it's more the fact that. You know my father was a very sick man my father was an alcoholic all my life I only knew him one way and that was as an alcoholic and. South Africa at that time was not necessarily a place where there was any you that you didn't have access to any kind of support group or you could even acknowledge that this was a problem or go and find help our culture at the time was very much thought of like well this is what men do men drink and if you're a strong man and a good man you drink a lot and and so there was it was a pretty hopeless situation our family was just kind of stuck in it and the day to day. Predictability of living with an addict is what is I think the thing that you sit with and have kind of a bedded in your body for the rest of your life more than just this one advent of you know what happened one night I think there are family was an incredibly unhealthy one and all of it I think scarred us in a way and of course you know I wish that what happened that night would have never happened it's unfortunately what happens when you don't get to the root of these issues. My father was so drunk that. He shouldn't have been able to walk when he came into the house with with a gun and he shot through. My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because we thought he was going to try and he was trying to push through the door and so both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through and he took a step back and just shot through the door 3 times and neither one of those none of those those bullets ever hit us which is just a miracle but in self-defense she ended the threat and this is a story that I have you know shared with a lot of people and so I'm not you know I'm not ashamed to talk about it because I do think that the more we talk about these things the more we realize we are not alone and any of it I think for me it's just always been that this story really is about out it like growing up without explained and what that does to a person and. Did you think that you and or your mother would die. That night yes no no I think I really believe that was it yes. Yeah and it was something that I've heard other people talk about this too I knew it the fear and the threat was there before anything actually took place that would inform me that there was a there was a threat I remember just hearing his car drive into the driveway and I just I just knew something bad was going to happen my body just knew. So what do you do after shooting like that did you call the police. You you your body goes into. Automatic and the strange way I just remember my mom saying you have to run to the neighbors you have to run to the neighbors and I was in my pajamas I was barefoot and I just remember I just ran in complete darkness and I could hear my breath I just remember my breath felt so amplified in my ears as my feet were hitting the dirt road as I was trying to get to the neighbor's house but I think she wanted to get me out of the house and I think she was still in that moment she was just she was doing she was being a mother. And she was trying to get me out of the house and you know I felt like I left her on the threat that she was still in danger but the neighbors kept me at their house and our neighbor and his son ran over and they were with her with her and. I only came over. She came to get me about an hour later. And I've been to that point I didn't know that he was dead I had no idea that he was dead and so it wasn't you know I think that was. The you just kind of like find yourself in this like continuous motion of shock. How do you mourn your father when your father tried to kill you and your mother I mean what what is that mourning process like did you feel any any grief you know for me it was a long one. My mom was incredibly strong. Because I just kind of the person she just has a quality about her where she is. I feel like she knew that she had to be that for both of us but she didn't deny me the room to mourn and I remember one night. We were staying with my aunt and I was in the bath and she was just sitting with me on the side of the bath and and I started getting really emotional but I didn't want to show her because I didn't want her to feel bad and I just remember her saying to me it's Ok it's Ok. So you know I think we we did what we had to do and she allowed me to kind of grief in a different way than she was grieving and she you know I think for her she was stuck in their consequences of that night for another 3 years of her life because there are you know there was a lot of unfortunate things that happened after that that she was still in the middle of legal things or yeah and I should mention she was acquitted self-defense self-defense and yes yeah this was mostly are the my father's side of the family who who just you know there's unfortunately really. Unfair Lee went after her and I have never since talked to any of those family members since that happened. I'm thinking about how strong your mother was that she you know because you just told her she encouraged you to leave after you won the modeling competition and to go to Italy and to be abroad and maybe stay abroad and considering what she was going through after that that just seems like so strong of her and so protective of you and showing such love for you. It's incredible you know now that I have my own 2 daughters and I does just even trying to wrap my head around that idea of what she did with my own kids it's tremendous what my mother did and the gift that she gave me I've said this a 1000000 times I would not be here today if it wasn't for her selfless decision to really push me out of that nest and say go you have to take advantage of this well she prevented you from being the daughter of the woman who shot her father Yeah I mean she is very has no one would know when you went to Italy no one needed to know about that nobody you know nobody knew for really I mean nobody knew until somebody found the story I I for years just never shared the story with anybody when did your mother move to the u.s. . Well she would always come and visit but she she's been living here a full full time. For the last 14 years 15 years you're very close now yeah physically and yes I mean she lives like 2 minutes away from me. And she co-parents with me and she's a huge part of raising my girls and you know she is just a really cool parson if she wasn't my mother I would still be this close to her like I just think that she is so like she is like no one I have ever met in my entire life she is a broad. She is a lover of life or she appreciates things on a level that. Is just so lovely to be around you know she wakes up every morning at 5 am and she hikes for 3 miles with not only her dogs but my dogs and it will send me every morning a photo of the sun coming up so great and I really sums up who my mom is. Well surely there are and I have to say you have really let an eventful life what a life I've been very fortunate very fortunate I want to thank you for sharing some of your life with us and I think gradually you on your performance and Bombshell and your Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Actress thank you so much for coming to our show thank you so much for having me Shirley's there and stars as Meghan Kelley in the new film bombshell tomorrow on Fresh Air My guest will be Julie Andrews she has a new memoir about her Hollywood years which began when she was brought to the Disney studios to play Mary Poppins will also talk with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton who co-wrote the memoir and was born a few months before Andrews began working on Mary Poppins they've co-written 32 books together mostly children's book. I hope you'll join us Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller technical director an engineer Bentham our associate producer of digital media is. Roberta Shorrock directs the show I'm Terry Gross. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from f.x. Presenting the new f.x. Original movie a Christmas carol a dark retelling of the holiday tale from Charles Dickens Christmas carol premieres Thursday December 19th at 7 30 pm on f.x. I'm from the pajama gram company offering hoodie footy PJ's footed pajamas for warmth and personal style in solids holiday prints and Nordic fleece Murrett pajama gram dot com. Support for Alaska Public Media comes from the sustaining members of Alaska Public Media thank you Rodgers and Hammerstein's the King and I is coming to Anchorage this April from the creators of The Sound of Music this timeless musical will sweep you off your feet with its dazzling songs and uplifting romance give the gift of great experiences tickets to the king and di are available at center takes and Anchorage concerts dot org this message sponsored by Anchorage concert Association. Tuesday on addressing Alaskans half of the world's surface somewhere around 40 percent of the world's g.d.p. Is concentrated in the Pacific Theater this week on addressing Alaskans we're hearing from retired United States Air Force general how Chandler stop looks at the relationship between the United States China and the Pacific at large to the lens of his 3 decades of service that's addressing Alaskans troops did to work on Alaska Public Radio f.m. Like $1.00. You're listening to Tell us Kay in Anchorage Alaska Public Media f.m. 91 point one. There's a grand American tradition of the speedy and fair trial that's just what we've proposed here in the Senate both parties are positioning for an expected impeachment trial in the New Year today is Monday December 16th and this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. I'm Ari Shapiro And I'm Audie Cornish this hour the Supreme Court decides not to hear a case about the right of homeless people to pitch tents in cities cities hands are tied now by the 9th Circuit's decision because it effectively creates a constitutional right to camp in Wisconsin Democrats scramble to reregister voters after a court ruling removes more than 200000 people from the rolls and in Beijing facial recognition technology has become integrated into daily life I think surveillance cameras are of those things that if you start noticing them you can I notice them plus the return of the scrunchy after these headlines. Live from n.p.r. News Ian Washington I'm Jack Speer the House Judiciary Committee is a laying out its case for the impeachment of President Donald Trump you know sweeping 648 page document Democratic lawmakers accusing Trump of abusing the power of his office for personal political gain and of obstructing Congress a House vote to impeach the president would set the stage for a Senate trial next year Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling in to for fresh evidence and testimony from key White House officials.