When Megan Fox first appeared in 2007’s Transformers alongside Shia LaBeouf, the actress became a sex symbol what seemed like overnight. Looking back at her early career, Fox has since opened up about the “breaking point” it brought her to after being consistently in the public eye. However, she refuses to point any fingers at director Michael Bay.
After a throwback interview created a round of backlash directed at Michael Bay regarding his treatment of Megan Fox when she worked with him early on in Bad Boys II, the actress responded in his defense. Months after the Transformers collaborators did damage control, Fox is opening up on her position about “cancel culture.” In her words:
It’s not something I’ve been longing to speak out on. But I don’t agree with cancel culture, and I don’t want people to get ‘canceled’ for something they didn’t do. While some of my working relationships were very challenging, that one specifically wasn’t one where I was sexually harassed or suffered, so I felt like I needed to defend him and clarify that. I have plenty of stories, but they don’t involve Michael. I really appreciated the support coming from people, but I also didn’t want to live with something that wasn’t the full truth.
Back in June, the famed Transformer filmmaker made headlines when a 2009 interview between Megan Fox and Jimmy Kimmel started circling around social media. In the appearance, the New Girl star talked about donning a bikini in a club when she was an extra in Bad Boys II at 15 years old. When the sequence was shot, Fox said she was not allowed to sit at the bar due to her age. She had said that Bay’s way around it was to have her dance as water falled on to her. Fox’s work in the film can be seen for maybe all of six seconds in the 2003 action film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Aside from wearing a bikini on set at 15, prior reports about Megan Fox’s audition for Transformers when she was closer to 20 allegedly involved the actress washing the director’s Ferrari to nab the role. In her recent statements, she put the rumors to rest, explaining she was at the parking lot of Bay’s production company, there were other crew members present and she was not asked to wear suggestive attire. Her complete comments were published on Instagram:
In Megan Fox’s recent interview with Yahoo, she made it clear that the idea of cancel culture is not something she’s particularly interested in being part of. In the context of Michael Bay, she did not feel comfortable with the filmmaker being under hot water for something he did not do, even though she felt “grateful” fans were concerned about her early experiences. Fox also expressed her perspective on the famous car scene in the 2007 blockbuster. In her words:
I don’t think there’s anything particular lascivious about how I was shot in Transformers. I don’t remember anything even that provocative; it was all pretty high-school innocent. I didn’t feel objectified when I was filming it, and I think that’s the point, right? It’s how you feel when you’re shooting it, not how you feel when you’re watching it and I never felt compromised in any of those ways. So for me, it’s not something that I regret, and I don’t think it’s something that needs to be changed. When I watch it now, I don’t have any sort of negative reaction at all.
Check out the sequence below:
Megan Fox's next role is in Rogue, where she plays a tough-as-nails mercenary who leads a group of soldiers in the South African Wilderness. That movie reaches VOD on August 28.
