The line between President Donald Trump and Russell Crowe’s Roger Ailes blurs in the first full trailer for Showtime’s The Loudest Voice, which dramatizes the rise of Fox News and the sexual harassment scandal that rocked the conservative network.
In many ways, the seven-part limited drama series documents the road to Trump as much as it does the legacy of Ailes.
“Television is the most powerful force in the world,” Crowe as the late Fox News cofounder says. “We’re gonna give them a vision of the world the way it really is and the way they want it to be. If we can do that, then they will never change the channel.”
“People don’t want to be informed,” he adds, “they want to feel informed.”
Familiar rhetoric from the current sitting president permeates throughout the trailer, notably a scene where Ailes demands “absolute loyalty,” perhaps a nod to Trump’s reported proclamation that he both needs and expects loyalty from his administration.
Narratively, The Loudest Voice goes into the events surrounding Gretchen Carlson, played here by Naomi Watts. Carlson was the first woman within Fox News to file a sexual harassment suit against Ailes. “I had two Miss Americas. Not that one yet,” Crowe as Ailes says of Watts’ Carlson — not unlike the locker room talk associated with Trump. (Carlson was crowned Miss America in 1989 as she represented Minnesota.)
Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) then portrays former Fox News booker Laurie Luhn, who “began a long abusive relationship with [Ailes] that impacted the rest of her life,” per a description from Showtime.
Also seen are Sienna Miller (American Woman) as Ailes’ wife Elizabeth, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) as former Fox News PR chief Brian Lewis, and Simon McBurney (The Theory of Everything) as News Corp leader Rupert Murdoch.
The Loudest Voice premieres on Showtime Sunday, June 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
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