Actress Megan Fox responded to the controversy surrounding her comments about director Michael Bay after an interview with her and Jimmy Kimmel went viral on Monday wherein she talked about being sexualized as a 15-year-old girl in Bay’s 2003 movie “Bad Boys II.”
“I know that a discussion has erupted online surrounding some of my experiences in Hollywood and the subsequent mishandling of this information by the media and society in general,” Fox began her said in a statement on Tuesday. “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. At least not where it’s currently being projected…”
During her interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Fox said that Michael Bay originally wanted to feature her in a bikini and heels for a club scene in “Bad Boys II.” Since she was underage and could not be shown drinking, the director opted to feature her dancing under a waterfall.
“At 15, I was in 10th grade. That’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works,” she told Jimmy Kimmel, as reported by Fox News.
Stories began to circulate about how Bay had Fox audition for her role in “Transformers” by appearing to “work” on his Ferarri. While that story is indeed true, Fox clarified she was 19 or 20 at the time and that it was done in a professional setting based on the dictates of the script.
“I was at no point undressed or anything similar,” she said. “So as far as this particular audition story I was not underaged at the time and I was not made to ‘wash’ or work on someone’s cars in a way that was extraneous from the material in the actual script. I hope that whatever opinions are formed around these episodes will at least be seeded in the facts of the events.”
Though Fox emphasized that she has faced misogyny in Hollywood, she said that neither director Michael Bay nor producer Steven Spielberg assaulted her in any way.
“There are many names that deserve to be going viral in cancel culture right now, but they are safely stored in the fragmented recesses of my heart,” she said. “But when it comes to my direct experiences with Michael, and Steven for that matter, I was never assaulted or preyed upon in what I felt was a sexual manner.”
“I’m thankful to all of you who are brave enough to speak out and I’m grateful to all of you who are taking it upon yourselves to support, uplift, and bring comfort to those who have been harmed by a violent and toxic societal paradigm,” she concluded.
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