Russell Crowe says his transformation to play Roger Ailes was 'freeing'

June 24 (UPI) -- Russell Crowe says his dramatic physical transformation to play Roger Ailes was a "freeing" experience.

The 55-year-old actor and his co-star Sienna Miller discussed portraying former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and his wife, Elizabeth Ailes, in the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice during Monday's episode of Today.

"It's a lot of fun, actually," Crowe said. "The difficulty of being in the [makeup] chair for many hours and sitting still is not really my thing, but once you have that stuff on it's kind of freeing. You know the makeup's doing a lot of work for you, so you can just relax with it."

Miller shared similar sentiments about her transformation as Elizabeth.

"It's so convincing that it's very strange to look in a mirror and not recognize any part of yourself," the actress said. "It was fun. I found it very liberating once you were in, like Russell said."

Crowe previously said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that he underwent hours of prosthetics to play Ailes, who died at age 77 in May 2017. Crowe wore two bald caps, a full neck piece and heavy prosthetics to play Ailes.

"When we first started, the prosthetic process was six hours, but then over time we got it down," the actor said. "The quickest we did it one day was two hours and 17 minutes."

The Loudest Voice examines Ailes' life and career, including the sexual harassment allegations that led to him leaving Fox News in July 2016. The miniseries co-stars Seth MacFarlane and Sienna Miller, and premieres June 30.