“Hollywood is not adapted to women and us actually having lives and being moms,” Fox told host Kelly Clarkson.
Fox is the mother of three children, aged 4 to 8, whom she shares with ex-husband Brian Austin Green.
As she explained, the typical Hollywood production is ill-equipped to accommodate pregnancy.
“As an actor it’s just very unforgiving because you can’t be on camera once you’re past a certain stage of pregnancy,” she said. “Once you have the baby it’s like, ‘Okay, well, you’re going to have to leave to nurse every two hours and that costs us money and insurance.’”
Then, after the baby arrives, actresses face a whole new level of pressure.
“There is that thing in this industry of like ‘Are you giving up? Are you just a mom now?’” Fox said. “There’s this weird pressure which also then creates guilt. You go to work too soon to satisfy those people.”
This is accompanied by the stress of getting back into pre-pregnancy shape — and fast.
“The problem is in your brain [while] you’re like delivering [your baby] and it’s like ‘OK, well I have to lose 30 pounds in eight weeks,’” she said. “Those things are really stressful and you’re supposed to be bonding and nurturing yourself and nourishing your baby.”
However, Fox is hopeful that change will come as more women rise to power in Hollywood.
“It’s been a patriarchy for so long that the power has been in the hands of people who don’t understand and haven’t been made to understand,” she explained. “It makes sense that it’s played out this way.”