He may have been responsible for one of her first-ever on-screen credits and the breakout role of her career, but the relationship between Michael Bay and Megan Fox has always been complicated.
The filmmaker’s back catalogue has hardly shown an aversion to objectifying the female form, but there was widespread outrage when Fox first revealed that when she was hired to play the challenging role of Bikini Kid Dancing Under Waterfall in Bad Boys II, she was only 15 years old.
Fox would publicly defend the director when her casting regained traction almost two decades on from the action sequel’s release, though, saying the experience “wasn’t one where I was harᴀssed or suffered, so I felt like I needed to defend him and clarify that”. Still, she hardly did Bay’s reputation any favours after revealing part of her Transformers audition required her to wash his Ferrari.
Of course, nobody goes to see an effects-heavy extravaganza about gigantic robot aliens punching each other in the face for its immersive plotline and richly drawn characters, but the part of Mikaela Barnes nonetheless turned Fox into a household name following its release in the summer of 2007.
Fox didn’t deliver what could reasonably be called a three-dimensional, layered, and nuanced performance, but she was at least cognisant enough to tell Today she agreed with the criticisms of her turn. “I’m terrible in it. It’s my first real movie and it’s not honest and not realistic,” she said. “The movie wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t proud about what I did”.
Acknowledging the obvious, Fox offered that “working with Michael Bay is not about an acting experience”, which is fair enough. Unfortunately, her subsequent forays into proving herself as a thespian haven’t gone quite according to plan, although 2021’s little-seen and underrated survival thriller Till Death does feature what’s easily the most well-rounded and impressive performance of her career.
The awards body that has conspired to hand out the most recognition to Fox since her Transformers breakthrough has been the Golden Raspberries, with the star being shortlisted ten times in such varied categories as ‘Worst Actress’, ‘Worst Screen Combo’, and ‘Worst Supporting Actress’. There’s only been one win so far, when she landed the latter for playing April O’Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, which happened to be produced by Bay.
Nobody’s really expecting Fox to make a habit of troubling the Academy Awards, and her name is more likely to be found splashed across the front pages of the tabloids than on a poster these days, but she’s always given off the impression of being somebody keenly aware of their public persona and perception, which she’s weaponised to carve out a successful stint on film and television that’s never seen her stray too far from the spotlight for over 15 years.