Actress Megan Fox has undoubtedly raised the bar for the term “overnight sensation”. After debuting in the 2004 film Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, she became an international megastar virtually overnight with a role as the popular and aesthetically appealing Mikaela Banes in the huge 2007 box office mega-hit Transformers.
Very quickly after, the meteoric rise of Fox’s celebrity practically worked hand-in-hand with the carrying of the Transformers film into the American zeitgeist of where Hollywood film was with the masses: big, dumb, loud, sexist, ADD, and yet shamelessly appealing? For Megan’s part, she has managed to use her predicament to her advantage. She’s been consistently forthright, outspoken, and makes no bones whatsoever about the situation she’s now found herself in with the tabloids as their new coveted sex symbol.
“Sure, getting photographed at Whole Foods and coming out of Rite Aid with your shampoo bottles and stuff, that’s new for me, but that’s not that crazy,” she remarks, “You adjust and acclimate to that pretty quickly.”
The now 23 year-old actress returns once again as Mikaela in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. She rejoins Michael Bay on what he has does best: a bright, sun-drenched rollercoaster ride of cheap humor, scantily-clad titillation, and a passion for explosions that borders on obsession. But Megan says it’s because of Bay’s self-assured pedigree for success that makes her self-assured about how she is projected in his Transformers world.
“I think the character is sexy, but women in movies in general are sexy and especially in Michael’s movies,” Fox notes, “And he knows how to make movies that get people in the theatre if that’s part of it, if that’s part of the formula.”
But one wonders whether Fox feels at least a little bit uncomfortable with being dressed up to be as much of the film’s special effect as the robots and the explosions.
“Oh, yeah, I have those moments on a daily basis, but the daily process of picking those outfits, I don’t have much of a say,” Megan says “I remember Mike was auditioning Ramon [Rodriguez] and some of the other characters and there’s just a roomful of men upstairs in his office. It was Shia, Ramon, Mike, and two other actors and I had to come down and knock on the door and try on all my wardrobe.”
“And I had on 18 different outfits,” she continues, “It was like white jean shorts and pink belly shirt and white motorcycle boots and we went through like a whole thing. Mike was selecting them in the process of auditioning, multitasking, he calls it. Well, I had no say, but clearly he has an eye for wit, what should and should not be in the movie. So I just trust him.”
We also wondered if Megan had felt equally uneasy working so closely with the military on the film, considering her newfound sex symbol status.
“I was really pleasantly not surprised with them but they’re all extremely chivalrous and respectful clearly because they are disciplined and they’re so much better behaved than the rest of the cast is, including myself though,” she says, “They listen and take direction really well and we’re all just fucking off. But it adds authenticity to the movie.”
“Michael consults with the military on everything to make it authentic and to make it real,” Fox adds, “It’s also just I enjoy being able to walk on the set and there’s a hundred real soldiers as opposed to walking on and there’s a hundred actors from Orange County or LA in fatigues. It was overall a really pleasant experience for me and I have an immense amount of respect for the soldiers and our troops.”
Fox claims she is just as self-assured when acting essentially in front of empty space later to be filled via CGI by lumbering, giant living robots.
“It was definitely easier because we had seem them at this point,” Megan says, “We’ve seen Optimus and we heard his voice and we know how he moves. It’s the same with all the robots. And once you’re able to visualize someone’s presence, it’s sort of easier to fake-interact with it. And those scenes are, I think they are some of the easiest scenes to shoot.”
“I enjoy them because you sort of…we’ve gotten good at being able to synchronize and pick an eyeline and you basically scream your dialogue at it and you avoid the area where you know it is,” she continues, “I enjoy those scenes. We usually end up doing a ton of takes because ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) needs to be specific. The light needs to be right and you need to be able to add it all in and make it work the way that they do. But it wasn’t that difficult this time around.”
We wondered whether the constant high-tech exposure has made herself Megan, part of an entire generation of technophiles, more adverse to technology like the social networking site Twitter, a burgeoning haven for Hollywood celebrities.
“I don’t know what Twitter is,” Fox says, “I don’t have a Twitter page. Tyrese [Gibson] is the only one who has a Twitter.”
While we were on the subject of Tyrese Gibson, we asked Fox for confirmation on a claim he made that Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen broke the record for the largest concentrated explosion in the history of film.
“1000 gallons, with the actors present,” she replies, “But Michael holds the other record, but I won’t talk about that.”
Fox revealed that the shoots were long, grueling 12-hour affairs and there was only one real method, she said, that was used to remedy that.
“I know, in New Mexico, to try and relax after a long, hard day of work, was go drink at Chili’s,” Megan reveals, “We drank a lot.”
We wondered how Megan managed to stay in relatively top physical condition with such an arduous shooting schedule.
“To stay in shape, I wasn’t really…I didn’t find the time or the motivation to workout after we’d shoot a 12 hour day,” Fox says, “So whatever happens to me at work…after 12 hours, I was too tired to work out, so I didn’t maintain much. How does Josh Duhamel do it, that specimen of a human being? That’s what I’d like to know.”
The months of shooting hit a potentially problematic snafu when co-star Shia LaBeouf injured his hand in a car accident that charged the actor with drunk driving. But Fox says that the injury did nothing to deter LaBeouf when filming resumed.
“Everyone’s very lucky for Shia’s commitment to this movie,” she declares, “Because he showed up with this injury and acted as though he didn’t have an injury and went balls to the wall and completely committed and did things that were not safe for him to do. But he wanted this movie to be as real as possible, so I think that helped everyone else a lot.”
We asked Megan if she was happy with the results of her in this new Transformers outing.
“I just saw it for the first time when we were in London,” Fox says, “And I usually don’t watch myself. I don’t watch playback. I don’t look at still photos. I have a phobia of it. But I force myself to sit down. I basically shot myself an entire glass of champagne so that I can get through the sitting of it.”
“I was really, really pleasantly surprised and like halfway through sort of overcome with genuine emotion,” she continues, “And I wanted to like hug Michael because I had gratitude for him for making this movie. So far, it has surpassed my expectations.”
Equally of interest concerning the actress is the more important question of whether she is happy overall with the results of the success of Transformers on her continually budding career.
“I think the movie and its success and how well it was received just opened a lot of doors for me career-wise,” Megan believes, “And I’ve been able to be a part of some films that I don’t really deserve to have been a part of and that’s due greatly to the success of Transformers, like I just did Jonah Hex with Josh Brolin and Michael Fasbender and John Malkovich and people in general, actors don’t get those kind of opportunities and for me to have that is a huge blessing and that’s because of the success of this movie.”
