'Conclave' Screenwriter Responds To Megyn Kelly's Viral Rant About Movie

This story discusses plot details from the 2024 film “Conclave.”

“Conclave” screenwriter Peter Straughan is pushing back against Megyn Kelly’s headline-grabbing criticisms of the film.

Speaking to Variety after winning a Golden Globe for the movie Sunday, Straughan dismissed Kelly’s claim that “Conclave” is “anti-Catholic.”

“I don’t think the film is anti-Catholic,” he told the outlet. “I think the core message of ‘Conclave’ is about the church always having to re-find its spiritual core, because it deals so much with power. That’s always been a careful, difficult balance.”

Noting that he’d been an altar boy in his youth, he added: “To me, that was a very central Catholic ideal that I was brought up with. I stand by it.”

Screenwriter Peter Straughan holds a Golden Globe award for the film "Conclave."

John Nacion/GG2025 via Getty Images

Adapted from Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, “Conclave” follows Cardinal Dean Thomas Lawrence (played by Ralph Fiennes), who is tasked with overseeing the Vatican’s search for a new pope. Four candidates soon emerge, each with their own set of secrets or scandals.

With a supporting cast that includes John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave” has received glowing reviews and emerged as an awards season front-runner, particularly in the wake of Straughan’s Golden Globe win in the category of Best Screenplay — Motion Picture.

Kelly, however, was among those not impressed by the movie, deeming it the “most disgusting anti-Catholic film I have seen in a long time.”

The former Fox News host took particularly aim at the movie’s conclusion ― in which one of the characters is revealed to be intersex ― in a lengthy rant on X, formerly Twitter.

Actors Ralph Fiennes, left, and Stanley Tucci are seen in 2024's "Conclave."

Courtesy of Focus Features.

“There are almost no redeeming characters in the movie - every cardinal is morally bankrupt/repulsive,” she wrote in the now-viral post. “What a thing to release to streaming just in time for Christmas. They would never do this to Muslims, but Christians/Catholics are always fair game to mock/belittle/smear.”

Though Fiennes has not yet publicly responded to Kelly’s remarks, he preemptively defended “Conclave” against such criticisms in an Entertainment Weekly interview published in November.

“It was neither a cynical takedown or satire on the Vatican, nor was it preaching and overly religious,” he said. “The big question is: Who is worthy? Who is the right person to become Pope? Who will have the spiritual foundation and integrity to hold that position?”