Sticking it to the man. Throughout her time in the spotlight Megan FoxShe has never been afraid or embarrassed to speak out about the negative effects of sexism, misogyny and other influences on her career.
In 2009, TransformersActress, 34, raises eyebrows with fiery remarks about her experience working alongside director Michael Bayon the first two installments. “‘Be hot.’ I’ve had that note on set before,” she told WonderlandThe magazine was still in print at the time. “I’ll say, ‘Who am I talking to? Where am I supposed to be looking at?’ And he responds, ‘Just be sexy.’ I get mad when people talk to me like that.”
Over a decade later footage of Fox describing an especially uncomfortable audition for Bay was rediscovered on social media. During a 2009 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actress remembered being asked to put on a bikini and high heels to dance under a waterfall in 2003’s Bad Boys II. “At 15, I was in 10th grade,” she said at the time. “That’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.”
Shortly after the old interview went viral, Fox took to Instagram to address the conversations that had “erupted online” about her “experiences in Hollywood and the subsequent mishandling of this information” at the time. The New Girl actress was fired from Bay’s films after taking aim at his directing style.
“While I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, I do feel I need to clarify some of the details as they have been lost in the retelling of the events and cast a sinister shadow that doesn’t really, in my opinion, belong,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement on Monday, June 22, before going into detail about her time working with Bay and her previous claims. “When it comes to my direct experiences with Michael, and Steven [Spielberg] for that matter, I was never assaulted or preyed upon in what I felt was a sexual manner.”
Fox had spoken out two years before about her decision to remain silent when some of Hollywood’s most powerful men were finally held accountable for their inappropriate behavior during the #MeToo movement.
“One could assume that I probably have quite a few stories, and I do — I didn’t speak out for many reasons,” she explained to the New York Times. “I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim.”
Scroll down to relive more of Fox’s most critical comments about the way Hollywood treats its female stars.
