Megan Fox covers the December issue of Cosmopolitan UK. Is anyone else feeling more… friendly towards Megan these days? That’s not the right word, but I feel like we should re-assess what she was trying to do back in 2009, when she used her platform as a celebrity to call out Michael Bay. In today’s environment, Megan would be hailed as a heroine for telling her story of sexual harassment, but back then, she was fired from the Transformers franchise for being so “mouthy.” If you remember, Megan said that Bay made her audition by ordering her to come to his house and wash his car in her bikini while he filmed her. It’s still a shocking story, isn’t it? Of course, Megan got in a lot of trouble for saying other sh-t too, like when she said that Bay was “like Hitler.” That was the official reason why Steven Spielberg (who produces the Transformers franchise) wanted Fox out of the film. Anyway, Megan brought all of this up in her Cosmo interview:
What it was like to be fired from Transformers: “That was absolutely the low point of my career. But without – ‘that thing’, I wouldn’t have learned as quickly as I did. All I had to do was apologise – and I refused. I was so self-righteous at 23, I couldn’t see [that] it was for the greater good. I really thought I was Joan of Arc.”
Her career was hurt in the wake of her firing: “It hurt me and a lot of other people. However, that darkness that descended caused enormous and brisk spiritual growth. Once I realised I [had] brought it on myself, it was an invaluable learning experience, looking back on it.”
She’s not really ambitious or career-oriented: “I would never pick work over life. I’m the least ambitious actress! I pick movies that’ll be fun to make. I’m not here to suffer for the art of movie-making or ‘bleed for the craft.’ And I’m not going to be an actress forever… I’ve always known I have another calling.”
She feels typecast in sexy roles: “I still get offered a lot of ‘genius strippers’ and ‘funny escorts’ by guys in the business. But I don’t want to be involved with something genuinely degrading, or that encourages negative sexual ideals about women. Old-school male attitudes towards women, it’s still in all the adverts. When my kids grow up, hopefully that attitude will be gone.”
She’s not ashamed of sex though: “I’m not ashamed of sexy poses or parts. Women shouldn’t go out of their way to be dowdy. Being feminine is a very sexy thing. It’s just a biological fact: sex does sell. But I wish it were more gender equal. I’m happy to buy some sex, too. It’s not wrong; it just needs to go both ways. Women shouldn’t have to carry the burden. And I think we have so far.”
I appreciate how honest she is about thinking that she was “Joan of Arc” and refusing to apologize. I remember how she was back then – 23-year-old and believing that she could do no wrong. She spent several years after that in some kind of limbo, barely getting work and being “punished” for pissing off Spielberg and Bay. Bay did eventually forgive her – if he was even that mad at her – by casting her in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I believe they’re still pretty close, actually, which is weird, right?
As for this: “Women shouldn’t go out of their way to be dowdy.” I will fight her about that. Some days, I don’t give a sh-t if I look dowdy. Some days, I wear my wool clogs with embroidered felt “puppies” and my most unflattering fleece and those clothes just make me happy.
Cover courtesy of Cosmo UK, additional photo courtesy of Getty.
I saw her dowdy comment more as women shouldn’t feel ashamed to like dressing sexily… they aren’t betraying feminism by dressing in a conventionally attractive way
I agree. I took it that women shouldn’t feel obligated to cover up. Going out of your way implies you’re doing because of what others think and not for yourself.
+1
Exactly how I took it as well. I agree with her too. Women should dress how they feel most beautiful or comfortable. There isn’t one way.
+1. It’s actually a fitting response to James Cameron’s stupid assessment that Wonder Woman is too sexy to be a feminist role model!
All these sexual assaults makes me think Megan wasn’t wrong, Bay has long rumored to be a prick on set and her career should not suffered for being honest about that.
Ytbtet, totally agree. If she had waited until now to release those details about her casting process and called him Hitler she probably wouldn’t have been fired, and she’d be a hero for speaking out against him. It’s too bad really. Michael Bay sounds like a disgusting creep, yet he’s still allowed to have a high powered job because he’s a man in Hollywood!
Agree on that. She had to apologize for calling him out, when he was the one who was wrong from the beginning.
He is a prick!! I’ve said this here before but I’ll say it again. He came into my restaurant while filming transformers in Detroit and was the rudest celebrity I’ve ever met. He refused to speak directly to me. He would speak to his assistant who would then speak to me. And he shoved a server who was setting down hot plates at his tables. Just pushed him out of the way. He’s a rude asshole. We’ve had lots of celebrities in but he was really the only one who was just awful
THE WORST. Met him once, and hands down the rudest person l have ever encountered. Mean just for the purpose of being mean. Asked me if I knew who he was, and when I didn’t he told me to ‘run along, I had taken enough of his time” FYI, I didn’t even talk to this prick, he injected himself into my conversation with an actor from Texas chainsaw, just to ask if I knew who he was.
Yeah, I agree, that was my take from it. That it’s not anti-feminist to want to look sexy. There is a strain that argues that it is, and that you place too much emphasis on the male gaze if you do. I disagree with that, too.
All of this!
@K: The ironic thing about that strain of feminism is that anyone telling a woman that her seat at the feminist table- or the fate of gender and racial equality overall- depends on her making sure nothing about her clothing or other physical appearance choices triggers arousal in a man is actually prioritizing the male gaze themselves.
I’m pretty much dowdy. I object to the implication that I go out of my way to be dowdy! I’m actually dowdy because I’m far too lazy to go to the effort of being anything other than dowdy, thankyouverymuch. Jus’ sayin’.
Haha. Well you’re not going out of your way to be dowdy, to some of us lucky ones it just comes natural.
I took it differently. I gathered women shouldn’t actively hide and cover themselves in an effort to not appear sexy to men. As in, do what you do without regard to the opposite sex.
@Sixer
Me too!!
However, I like the word ‘frumpish’ more. I love it!
I agree wit Lama Bean too.
For example, I was always ‘forced’ to be all dressed up and with make-up on since I was a teenager because I was supposed to look attractive to men.
Once that requirement fell (basically when I left home, my mum was obsessed!), I am so much happier when I go around in my ‘dowdy’ look.
She sounds kind of cool! No shade from me.
I am her age and I had a similar attitude back in the day. I was in academia and saw nothing wrong with dressing well and wearing makeup. I wasn’t as sexy as Megan Fox, obviously, but I always got blowback for not being a makeup-less, jeans and hoodie wearing student. I appreciated her and found her refreshing and smart. And Jennifer’s Body is great.
Jennifer’s body was great! I remember watching it in the theaters being impressed by her performance.
Hollywood sounds like a soul-sucking hell on earth.
Thank goodness…it looks like low rise jeans might be coming back for Spring! I hate the highrise and midrise ones.
I can’t do high rise but I’ve FINALLY gotten used to mid rise. I’d still be pumped to see a low rise comeback though.
To each their own. I have a high waist and wide hips and high rise jeans are the only thing I can wear. I do not have the figure to look like that in low rise jeans, but I’m cool with it. I hope they bring back the pants you love, just not at the expense of my beloved high-waisted jeans!
Same here. Low rise jeans are not for me, but I understand how people want them to make a comeback. In the last couple of weeks and months I got tired of skinny jeans and wanted to buy some bootcut jeans. I found nothing.Every store sold skinny high waist, skinny high ankle, skinny boyfriend, skinny this and that – not a single bootcut. I ended up buying a pair second hand online and I’m in heaven.
I totally don’t have the body for low-rise jeans either. I’m high-waisted, slim-hipped and they just fall down. I’m a big fan of “Not Your Daughter’s Jeans” – they’re cut beautifully, don’t look like mom jeans, and fit really well on my weird figure.
I finally got some high waisted back in August. Three pairs from hollister when they had the $25 pair. I LOVE them. Sucks the belly pooch in amazingly!!
If I wear low rise it really showcases my muffin top… so while I think the low rise is a cuter style, I hope the mid and high rise stick around for my sake!
An extreme muffin top here. I need high waisted jeans, as well as a high bed to lie back on to zip them up. Squiggle off the bed, good to go!
Yay!! I work with many young women who embrace the high-rise trend and guess what? They aren’t pulling it off any better than we did back in the day. The style doesn’t flatter anyone (that I’ve seen anyhow) and should never have been resurrected!! ETA: Jmo; I can see by the comments here that others disagree and with good reason.
I agree!! Even the models look weird in them.
It looks awful lol
Low-rise jeans/pants are not coming back, thank god. I work in fashion product development.
To everyone asking why more women didn’t speak out sooner – what happened to Megan Fox after she spoke out against Bay was the textbook illustration of why not.
THIS. Should she even need to regret her actions? She was one of the canaries in the coal mine, and she did NOT come back.
Aside from the Hitler comment, I always thought she was right. You shouldn’t be required to sexily wash a car as an audition tape for a movie about talking cars/robots whatever. She wasn’t polished but it always bothered me that Bay got away with being a POS because she wasn’t the perfect accuser.
I was thinking about how many women decided to not say anything about their abuse after seeing the ramifications that Fox had. That was bs & we should all push for her resurrection.
I cancelled Spielberg for what I see to be an overreaction to Fox’s remarks. Often, our proportionality to react to news of injustices are out of whack. Fox was effectively black balled by the industry, for speaking up against a male bully of a director. Her choice of words was stupid, but it was her who received the worst treatment, not the bullies. That doesn’t seem fair in hindsight.
I’ve always side-eyed Spielberg for that overreaction. Megan, in rightfully calling out Bay, did make an insensitive, hyperbolic comment but one that many people have wrongly casually slung around before. Not only did he fire her but the rumor is that he went out of his way to blacklist her…you think he would spend that effort on domestic abusers, Mel Gibson, etc. but nope.
I woldn’t be surprised if some dirt came out on him in the future tbh.
THIS.
When Corey Feldman talked about being abused, and pedophiles in Hollywood, and that he couldn’t name names because those predators were and still are very powerful I’ve always thought about him. Not directly as a predator , but as someone who knew what was going on.
She was young and stupid, but to think you can call someone “Hitler” in public over a work dispute at Steven Spielberg’s company and he would or should let THAT ride is also not smart. Let’s not get it twisted, she admits herself that all she had to do was apologize for the Hitler remark, which she should have because sexually harassing a-hole does not equal Hitler. If she’d managed to keep it on the car-washing bikini audition she might’ve managed to get some traction.
That is A LOT of maturity that you’re demanding of a 23-year-old up-and-coming female actor. Odd that you are not requiring the same maturity of middle aged men.
Yeah, I always thought it was the hitler comment and refusal to apologize that got her blacklisted. Have others in Hollywood gotten away with much worse? Sure, but her behavior would’ve gotten her in trouble at many workplaces, so this isn’t just a case of her being punished for calling out harrassment.
@Betty rose
The other issue is that she was constantly late and a pain in the ass on set. The Hitler comments were just the breaking point. And Shia (who I’m sure was just as difficult) got the boot too when he said Spielberg dropped the ball (on the new Indiana Jones film they did)….
And Shia LaBoeuf didn’t suffer and was ten times the twat.
Well, I believe Spielberg’s reaction when Max Landis called him after killing Vic Morrow and two Asian kids on the Twilight Zone was lawyer-lawyer-lawyer. And thanks to his help he has a career and so does his monstrous spawn. So, literally killing people is fine by Spielberg, but got forbid you use “Hitler” to describe someone as dictator-like, which is actually super common in every day conversation.
Agreed. She made a stupid Hitler analogy – while that was probably especially offensive to Spielberg, it’s something a lot of people do at that age, and honestly later too. How many people call themselves ‘food nazis’ or ‘cleaning nazis’? Bay, on the other hand, was a notorious raging a-hole for years, and in the light of all the revelations that have come out, quite possibly a lot worse. She got blackballed, Bay made billions. Given everything we’ve heard lately about how harassment and abuse seem to be the norm, I feel like Spielberg is just part of the boys club – ruining her career, but letting Bay slide because he made him more money. The past few weeks have made me feel bad for people like Fox and even Katherine Heigl, who were blackballed for being ‘difficult’, when so much worse is going on.
To be fair, don’t we only have Bay’s word for that? He said “Stephen told me to immediately fire her.” Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, maybe he just said he disliked the comment … Bay’s word can’t be trusted at all. He also got crew members to gang up on Fox online and defend him.
Me too! I was never a fan anyway but once he got involved I was done with him. And I became a Megan Fox fan.
Nice interview. I think she has grown to become that woman she used to think she was.
Everytime I see Megan Fox I just curse her for messing with perfection. She looked beautiful before all the surgeries and whatnot and she also has pretty decent comedic timing. Now she looks like a relatively well-preserved 50+ year old who can barely move her face and looks constipated all the time. It was very distracting on New Girl.
She really was so gorgeous and fresh-faced. Sigh.
She’s really grown on me the last few years though. I like her.
She is still pretty but yes, it’s sad how she wrecked her own incredible natural beauty.
I think it goes to show even people we view as beautiful don’t see themselves that way if even someone like hers dislikes the way they look marketing and the media play a part In that how many posts online do you see critizing what people look like weigh and dress it needs to stop then we critize them when they get plastic surgery it’s insidious it sends the message that woman are never enough
Yes, she was so lovely the way she was.
I think she hit her high point with the surgeries about the 2nd or 3rd go-round…her face during the first Transformers movie with just the nose job and some mild lip plumping was just perfection.
Yes and if she had just quit while she was ahead. SMH.
I like her though. Enough to watch that godawful movie she did with Mickey Rourke where she played an angel.
WOW. Just watched some clips of New Girl on Youtube. Bizarre. It is like just her mouth moves on a frozen face. Not good.
Sigh… have we not learned? I thought the lesson here was empathy? We saw her get screwed by the system, we know the whole world convinced her to look hot and shut up or else. Is it surprising that she took that message to heart and tried to maintain her hotness and it didn’t work out?
I like low rise jeans as well, but wouldn’t have my hands in them pulling them down to the pubic bone. Megan, that’s why you get type cast in sexy roles! She’s pretty, but I can’t get over the fact the love of her life is David Silver! Lol
it’s because she has clubbed thumbs. She never shows them..
You’re right. The article I read was funny af. It said which is Megan more embarrassed of her thumbs or her marriage to David Austin Green! I don’t know which is meaner, to make fun of a deformity or to get her husband’s name wrong!
Loads of people take the piss out of her when they foundout its hardly surprising she hides them
Hey! Easy on the deformity comments. 🙂 I have clubbed thumbs and so does my tween. I’m teaching her to love her unique thumbs!!
I love David Silver!!! It could be worse! She could be married to Steve!!!
I’ve always felt a bit bad for Megan and it was disgusting how people reacted to her rightfully calling out sexism. She said some problematic things, but many male stars have said and done far worse (cough cough Shia). Additionally, she was in her late teens, early 20s and a lot of us say dumb things at that age. People and the media were incredibly over the top with the vitriol to her missteps. I also side eye Spielberg for essentially blacklisting her.
I sometimes wonder if there was some unfair backlash for young “it” girls after Lilo’s fall for grace circa 2007 (as in people/media didn’t have any patience for youthful mistakes anymore and women who didn’t fit the traditional good girl image)…which was right around when Megan started to hit it big.
When people have a level of success we seem to like destroying them we champion the underdog but when they get success we drag them down I remember when she called bay out people where acting like she should be grateful he was giving her work despite the fact she was in an abusive wok situation the message was suck it up and stop complaining
Those are perfect incidents where Hollywood powerful men have gotten rid of who they want to. Lindsay has her internal issues but someone wanted her gone and she is.
I just clicked on the link to the celebitchy post from 2009, I read through to the comments. The majority of them are so negative and misogynistic to Megan for speaking out, it’s actually mind blowing. At least this site has become a bit less ‘bitchy’ in the intervening years.
It was the with katie holmes. People just to hate her here and wrote really horrible things. Then she escaped and suddenly she was a hero. I always side eye that.
YUP.
What? She called someone out, they fired her and now *she*’s sorry? I’m tired of women being told to sit down and shut up, I cannot believe I used to think it was ‘unbecoming’ to stand up for my own god damn interests and rights!
Wow!l people still think she needed to have apologized. This site takes her over the coals. The only thing WRONG with her speaking out was that it wasn’t ‘trendy’ to sympathize with the victim. Now it is and people like the feeling of supporting the underdog. I felt so bad for her then and all the comments on here back then were so toxic. But I wonder how many people will own up to it? Even this article is still thinks it’s fine that she viewed herself mistakenly as Joan of Arc. Nah sis! She was just a niave strong woman that spoke out and thought decent people would understand. She was beaten down and still people want to pick over the carcass of her career.
+1
She says that she brought this on herself and was self-righteous. She is effectively blaming herself for speaking out, not the men for doing this in the first place. She has all but apologized and take responsibility for their bad actions.
What bad actions, though? I certainly don’t blame Spielberg at all. He’s Jewish, and clearly the allusion to Hitler offended him. If you offend your boss on a personal level, getting fired is going to be a potential consequence. That hardly makes your boss the bad guy.
As for Bay and the audition, Fox was auditioning for what amounted to an eye candy role. How she looked mattered. I’m sure Chris Hemsworth had to take his shirt off in order to secure his role as Thor. It’s the nature of the beast.
Bay told her to come to his personal residence & wash his car in a bikini while he watched & video taped it. That is not the same as asking an actor/model to take off their shirt during a professional audition. Saying that sexual harassment is the nature of the beast is complicit & supports abuse.
I want to know the secret that celebrities enjoy during their pregnancies that not only leaves them without stretch marks but leaves their belly buttons intact. Megan Fox has had three pregnancies if I’m correct and still has an intact belly button?! Kim K got huge during her first pregnancy and had a subsequent one and still has a stomach like before. I had one small 7 lb baby and gained a total of only 28 lbs and my belly button is wrecked, looks like someone set off dynamite in it. I know there must be some secret these ladies have 🙁
Plastic surgery and photoshop is the secret.
also: being slender to begin with, working out, not taking to much weight during pregnancies (the needed one),taking extra good care of your skin (ry brushing, moisturizing, nurturing with heavy ointments ,and using belly bandit afterwards)
….this is the routine I had during my pregnancy and I bounced back in a couple of months, wearing a bikini .
All I want to say is it’s a LOT of work AL- LOT (let alone after 3 kids!… I can’t even imagine), but not necessarily photoshop or surgery
@ Darla, there must be something they do during the pregnancy too that prevents aftermath. I’m sure if we ask them though they’ll say it was from juicing and bathing in sunshine lol.
@truthful yeah i did all that. Gained weight slowly, started off slim and fit already, ate nutritious food during pregnancy (especially foods that would be good for skin, like healthy fats, vitamin c, a, and e. Etc), used vitamin e and coconut oil + massage on the skin for stimulation. Did all that and it didn’t work, bellybutton ruined and small but noticable white stretch marks. These celebrities have much more than that, there’s no way they’re all just “lucky” or reaping the benefits of fitness or genes, they’re doing something else.
@Littlestar: so sorry :/
And yeah they might be doing something
LOL. Has anyone else seen Thor? Remember what they called the biggest hole in the solar system over that planet? …that’s my belly button.
The Hitler comment was something you don’t say, but she was too young to realize that, and Spielberg should have known that and maybe he should have asked Bay HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THIS GIRL??
So, while I understand she said a wrong word, what Spielberg did has cancelled him for me EVER SINCE. I can’t stand him and I personally believe he has plenty of skeletons in that closet.
Bay is a disgusting excuse for a human being and I look forward to the day he is run out of town.
Did you see what Gal Gadot did? That’s what happens when women gain power and know how to wield it. JaLaw has that power she doesn’t know how to wield it or even that she has it.
But Gadot, slightly older, and the mother of two small girls, got some power and she knows how to use it, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT
What did Gal Gadot do?
I’ve always liked Megan. It seems she was a little before her time in speaking out about predatory behavior in Hollywood. So many times I read about how “ungrateful” she was because Michael Bay gave her her big break, so who cares about the bikini car wash? *eyeroll* I’m glad she’s been able to carve out a nice career for herself that she enjoys.
Life has a way of knocking a person down a few pegs when they are too full of themselves. She got the message – good for her.
[*Not everyone does.*]
The more I read about Megan the more I like her. I always assumed she was exactly the person the movies portrayed her as and wasn’t a fan. Nice to hear she was/is self aware of how the industry showcased her and the personal growth she went through. Sounds like she is not apologizing for speaking out but perhaps the way she went about it?? Either way bay is gross and glad she is able to balance work and life and still embrace being more than the “hot chick”.
Me too. She seems like a decent person.
Me three.
I always liked her. She was brash but not always wrong. I picked up on her sarcastic tone in interviews like the whole falling in love with a stripper. Idk, obvious sarcasm to me. I knew she’d mellow out a little and people would come around on her. She’s quirky but I like it. I do miss her OG face but I’m also glad she mellowed out. And she has. There was one premiere (can’t remember if it was for transformers or Jennifer’s body) but her face was so tight there was a vein in her forehead I couldn’t stop focusing on.
“I believe they’re still pretty close, actually, which is weird, right?”
Meagan Fox was basically in a family that gaslighted her when she tried to tell them a family member was abusing her. The whole world told her she was wrong. That’s obviously the lesson she took from the ordeal. Just like some victims of abuse forgive their abuser and spend time with them under the duress of family, so does Megan Fox.
Every single day I wear, dress, or look how I want to. Usually it means no makeup, and a ponytail, then off to work in a pair of scrubs.
That’s not what she’s talking about.
I believe she was trying to say women should purposely censor themselves, or dial their physical sexual down to appease someone else?
But then articulation was never Megans strength.
If she would’ve said Bay was like a egotistical tyrant- I doubt Spielberg would’ve gotten so butt-hurt about it.
‘As for this: “Women shouldn’t go out of their way to be dowdy.” I will fight her about that. Some days, I don’t give a sh-t if I look dowdy. Some days, I wear my wool clogs with embroidered felt “puppies” and my most unflattering fleece and those clothes just make me happy.’
I hear what you are saying. I think she was talking about hiding her assets/sensuality out of fear of attention or being shamed by men ( and possibly women), rather than what you are saying- that it’s just comfy, and you don’t feel like doing more that particular day.
She makes a lot of sense here! I’ve always thought she is stunning. She used to have a bunch of word vomit though.. as many of us did at 23. Not about what happened with bay–she just was a little out there. She sounds really mature here. Yay!
People’s attitudes have changed a lot since those 2009 links huh? Seems like back then, even your sympathies were with Bay, and y’all were pretty nasty about Fox.
It’s great that things have changed, but yes – there was no support here for Megan. I believe “ungrateful” was used prolifically.
I remember that. I kept away from Fox threads because of it.
I like her and I think she’s gorgeous but when she goes out of her way to create a very sexy image for herself, she really can’t complain when she is typecast into sexy roles. She manufactured her image and chose to go that route.
I had no problems with her even back when she was 23. If you are a woman and had any sense and wisdom about you, you knew exactly what she was getting at back then, no matter how poor the delivery. But people – and that includes a lot of women -just took the opportunity to crush her further. Shame she doesn’t really seem to work anymore. I really enjoyed her in Jennifer’s Body.
“I was so self righteous at 23. I thought I was Joan of Arc”
But at least SHE grew out of it.
I’m 28 now and I’ve always loved her. I was that way too but at 25 after I got away somewhat from my abusive ex-partner. What I didnt love about Megan are those god awful cheek implants. Jennifer’s Body/Trans 2 was her best one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sHqBzvoWxU
She seems to be the kind of person you talk to for a whole afternoon and you don’t realize how fast time’s gone. Always enjoy her recent interviews.
.
So gorgeous and Isaw her and New girl while Zooey Deschanel was on maternity leave, and she was hilarious1 She should do more comedy.