Megan Fox

• 1. Introduction

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  In 2010, the American actress Megan Fox said something few stars say about their own fame: "My biggest regret is that I've assisted the media in making me into a cartoon character." She added that she did not regret what had happened to her, only "the way I have dealt with it."

  She had risen to fame only a few years earlier. By the time she spoke, her place in the spotlight had already shrunk.

  This documentary asks how a girl from small-town Tennessee became a figure she herself called a cartoon. It asks who built that image and how much of it she designed on purpose. It also asks what her work looks like once the persona is set aside.

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• 2. Tennessee Childhood

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  Megan Denise Fox was born on the 16th of May 1986 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and spent her early childhood in nearby Rockwood. Her parents were Gloria Darlene, born Cisson, and Franklin Thomas Fox, a parole officer. They divorced when Megan was three. Her mother later remarried, and Megan and her sister were raised by their mother and their stepfather, Tony Tonachio.

  Fox described her upbringing as "very strictly Pentecostal," yet she later spent 12 years in Catholic school. She said her parents were "very strict." She was not allowed to have a boyfriend or to invite friends to the house. She described her stepfather as "verbally, mentally, and emotionally abusive" until his death. She also said she developed an eating disorder in her adolescence and struggled with manic depression, which she said ran in her family. She lived with her mother until she earned enough to support herself.

  At the age of five, in Kingston, Tennessee, Fox began training in dance and drama. She took a dance class at the community center, sang in Kingston Elementary School's chorus and swam for the Kingston Clippers. At ten she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, and kept training. At 13 she began modeling after winning several awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

  School was harder than the stage. In middle school, Fox said, she ate lunch in the bathroom to avoid being "pelted with ketchup packets." She said her looks were not the problem. She had "always gotten along better with boys," and that rubbed some people the wrong way. In high school she called herself "a total outcast" with "a very aggressive personality" that girls did not like.

  She attended Morningside Academy in Port St. Lucie, then moved to St. Lucie West Centennial High School for her junior year. She said she had "never been a big believer in formal education." At 17 she tested out of school by correspondence so she could move to Los Angeles, California.

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• 3. Transformers Years

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  Fox's first screen credit was Holiday in the Sun, a romantic comedy released direct-to-DVD on the 20th of November 2001. She played Brianna Wallace, a spoiled heiress and rival of Alex Stewart, who was played by Ashley Olsen. Guest spots on the sitcoms What I Like About You and Two and a Half Men followed. In 2003 she also appeared as an uncredited extra in Bad Boys II.

  In 2004 she made her feature film debut opposite Lindsay Lohan in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. She played Carla Santini, a rival of Lohan's character Lola. That same year she joined the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith as Sydney Shanowski, replacing Nicole Paggi. She stayed through the second and third seasons, until ABC canceled the series in May 2006.

  The part that changed everything came in 2007. Fox won the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the live-action Transformers, based on the toy and cartoon saga. Mikaela was the love interest of Sam Witwicky, played by Shia LaBeouf. Fox earned an MTV Movie Award nomination for Breakthrough Performance, plus three Teen Choice Award nominations. She signed on for two sequels and returned in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, released worldwide on the 24th of June 2009 to box office success.

  Filming that sequel was not smooth. Director Michael Bay ordered Fox to gain ten pounds. She later told GQ that she had lost about 30 pounds during filming, living mostly on water and vinegar. She reportedly had a dispute with Bay on set over her visible weight loss.

  Her comments about Bay cost her the third film. Fox was set to star in Transformers: Dark of the Moon but was left out after she compared working under Bay to working for Hitler. In June 2009, Bay said Fox was fired on the orders of executive producer Steven Spielberg. Spielberg denied it.

  In 2009 an unsigned letter from three Transformers crew members defended Bay. It said Fox's on-set behavior differed from her public persona. Bay said he did not condone the letter or Fox's "outlandish quotes," adding that "her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm." A production assistant said he never saw Fox act inappropriately on set. Fox called the letter's claims false and said she had spoken privately with the people involved. She said she felt "very fortunate" to be part of the franchise.

  By February 2013, Fox had set aside her differences with Bay and agreed to work with him again, on his reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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• 4. Cult Film and Flops

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  The Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody wrote Jennifer's Body, and in 2009 Fox took the title role. It was her first lead since the Transformers series. Reviews on release were mixed to average, though Fox's performance drew praise. Over time the film gained a cult following and was critically reassessed as a "forgotten feminist classic." Cody said executives marketed it incorrectly by focusing on a young male audience.

  In April 2009 Fox began filming the western superhero film Jonah Hex. She played Tallulah Black, also called Leila, a gun-wielding love interest for Josh Brolin's Jonah Hex. Despite her top billing, Fox described her part as a cameo. The film was released on the 18th of June 2010 and was a critical and commercial failure in the United States. Its international distribution was canceled after the poor performance. The Houston Film Critics Society named it "worst picture of the year."

  Passion Play paired Fox with Mickey Rourke. After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, it skipped conventional theatrical distribution and went direct to video. Only two screens showed it briefly, to fulfill contractual obligations. Rourke himself remarked that the film was "terrible. Another terrible movie."

  Fox's next high-profile appearance was not in a film at all. She appeared with Dominic Monaghan in the music video for Eminem and Rihanna's single "Love the Way You Lie."

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• 5. Persona and Backlash

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  Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times called Fox a "sex symbol of the highest order" and "the first bona fide sex symbol of the 21st century." MTV's Craig Flaster said Transformers turned her into a household name and an international sex symbol. In 2008, FHM readers voted her the "Sexiest Woman in the World." She also appeared on Maxim's Hot 100 lists. People named her one of its Most Beautiful at Every Age in 2012 and again in 2017.

  Scholar Marc DiPaolo traced her instant fame to one image from Transformers. Mikaela leans over a Camaro in "a flimsy pink belly shirt" and a short skirt. DiPaolo argued that this read as "an unequivocal sex invite" to male viewers. The editors of Men's Health also credited the Camaro scene with contributing to Fox's fame.

  Fox said that all women in Hollywood are known and marketed as sex symbols, and that this is acceptable if a woman knows how to use the status. She said she created a character for her public image because she was unwilling to sacrifice her true self. Scholars Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster disagreed that every woman in Hollywood is marketed this way. They wrote that her celebrity rests on what she admits is "an entirely artificial construct designed for dissemination in the Internet age."

  Outlandish comments were part of the package. Fox said they helped her reach her level of fame, compared with "a typical starlet" who "said all the right things."

  The press often labeled her the "next Angelina Jolie," and reports said she would replace Jolie in a new Lara Croft film. Fox said the comparisons showed a lack of creativity in the press. She attributed them to both women being brunette, tattooed, cursing and joking about sex, "which people find outrageous." Lynn Hirschberg of The New York Times wrote that Fox sped up the comparison by linking herself to Jolie. Hirschberg said she enjoyed creating entertaining copy by telling "tales of darkness and lust."

  Fox began getting tattoos at age 19 as a form of self-expression, and they helped popularize tattoo fashion. One was a picture of Marilyn Monroe's face on her right forearm. Author John Tehranian argued that it enhanced her implicit claims to Monroe's legacy as Hollywood's leading sex symbol. Fox eventually removed it in a series of laser surgeries, because she felt Monroe's life was full of negativity.

  The attention was hard for Fox, who acknowledged being shy and insecure. It made her a potential role model and later led to typecasting. She rejected being a formal role model, but said she could make young girls feel "strong and intelligent" and outspoken. She treated being typecast as attractive as a chance to surprise people with a good performance, and said she wanted less sexualized characters. Craig Flaster noted that she has shown comedic range.

  On the 4th of August 2009, several men's websites, including AskMen, boycotted Fox over her overexposure. Some sites refused to join, feeling the boycott was a publicity stunt and therefore hypocritical. In September 2009 Fox told Nylon that the studio "wanted to make sure the film would make $700 million, so they oversaturated the media with their stars." She said she did not want people to get "completely sick of her" before she had done something legitimate. By 2010 she was much less prominent in the media.

  DiPaolo concluded that her criticism of the press for sexually objectifying girls and women sat in stark contrast to her own sex symbol status. He said her defiance of Bay and her outspoken comments stifled her career. Dixon and Foster put the trap this way: "once established, a media persona is hard to recalibrate."

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• 6. Second Act

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  In 2012 Fox appeared briefly in Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy The Dictator and had a featured role in Judd Apatow's comedy This Is 40. On the 9th of September 2012 she voiced Lois Lane in the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special, a one-off episode aired in Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block. In January 2013 she appeared in a Brazilian television commercial for Brahma beer.

  In 2014 she starred as April O'Neil, the lead human character, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She returned to the role in the 2016 sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. In 2015 she was cast as Amelia Delthanis in the Plarium video game Stormfall: Rise of Balur.

  In October 2015 it was confirmed that Fox would temporarily replace Zooey Deschanel on the sitcom New Girl during Deschanel's maternity leave. Fox played Reagan Lucas in the fifth and sixth seasons. Critics gave her performance positive reviews.

  On the 12th of September 2018 it was confirmed that Fox would star in the Korean War film The Battle of Jangsari beside Korean actor Kim Myung-min. She played Marguerite Higgins, an American news reporter. That year she also hosted four episodes of Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox, which she co-created and executive produced.

  In 2019 she starred opposite Olivia Thirlby and Alan Ritchson in the mystery-fantasy film Above the Shadows, directed by Claudia Myers. Gravitas Ventures released it on the 19th of July 2019. Zeroville, directed by James Franco, also appeared that year. It had been shot in 2014, and critics panned it. It performed poorly at the box office.

  In 2020 she starred opposite Josh Duhamel in the family comedy Think Like a Dog, released on video on demand on the 9th of June. She also led the action film Rogue, released on the 28th of August 2020. In 2021 she starred in two thrillers. Midnight in the Switchgrass, directed by Randall Emmett, featured Emile Hirsch and Bruce Willis. Till Death was directed by S.K. Dale.

  In 2022 she appeared in the drama comedy Big Gold Brick, directed by Brian Petsos, alongside Oscar Isaac, Andy Garcia, Lucy Hale and Emory Cohen. She also had a role in Taurus, a musical drama with Machine Gun Kelly, Naomi Wild and Lil Tjay.

  In 2023 Fox was featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She played the crime boss Alana in the thriller Johnny & Clyde with Tyson Ritter. In September of that year she appeared as Gina in Expend4bles and voiced Nitara in the video game Mortal Kombat 1. In November 2023 she released her first book, Pretty Boys Are Poisonous, a collection of her own poetry.

  In September 2024 she starred as Alice, a lifelike artificially intelligent android, in Subservience. In December 2025 she voiced Toy Chica in the film Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

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• 7. Beyond the Screen

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  In 2009, a group of fashion-motivated criminals known as the "Bling Ring" targeted Fox. They robbed the home of her then-boyfriend Brian Austin Green to gain access to her possessions.

  In 2013 Fox said her Christian faith was still very important to her and that she believed it kept her grounded. She and Green supported the organization Generosity Water. Together they funded the creation of over ten water wells.

  Fox has said the image of a "wild and crazy sexpot" is false. She describes herself as asocial and says she would rather stay at home than go out. She is bisexual, and in 2009 she said she had "no question in my mind about being bisexual." In an InStyle interview in July 2021, she said women had told her she helped them understand their own sexuality. She called being named a "bi icon" one of the things she is most proud of.

  The tattoos tell their own stories. On the back of her neck is the Chinese symbol for "strength." Her left wrist carries the yin and yang symbol, and her ankle a crescent moon entwined with a star. One line comes from Shakespeare's King Lear: "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies." A quote from Friedrich Nietzsche runs across her back: "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." She first said she had it drawn in honor of her Passion Play costar Mickey Rourke. She later clarified that it is "not necessarily a homage to him."

  She once had Green's first name tattooed on her hip, but later had it covered. A tattoo on her left collarbone reads "the gunman" in Spanish.

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• 8. Love and Family

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  Fox began dating the actor Brian Austin Green in 2004, after they met on the set of Hope & Faith. She was 18 and he was 30. Green was at first hesitant because of the age difference. Fox recalled, "I had to convince him that I was slightly more responsible and well-spoken and had other things to bring to the table besides being 18."

  They became engaged in November 2006. In February 2009 they ended the engagement, and they were reported to be re-engaged on the 1st of June 2010. Fox maintained that they had been continuously engaged since 2006. They married on the 24th of June 2010 in a private ceremony at the Four Seasons resort on the island of Hawaii.

  Together they have three sons, born in 2012-2014 and 2016. Fox also became a stepmother to Green's son from a previous relationship. On the 21st of August 2015, she filed for divorce, a few days after the couple announced their separation. By early 2016 they were back together and expecting their third child. On the 25th of April 2019, Fox filed to dismiss the divorce.

  In May 2020, Green announced that the two had separated after nearly 10 years of marriage. In November 2020, Fox filed for divorce a second time. The divorce was finalized on the 15th of October 2021.

  In June 2020, Fox and the singer Machine Gun Kelly went public about their relationship. It came several weeks after the release of his song "Bloody Valentine," whose music video features Fox. On the 12th of January 2022 she announced their engagement. On the 21st of March 2024 she announced that it was called off. In November 2024 she announced on Instagram that she was expecting a child with him, and on the 27th of March 2025 she gave birth to a daughter.

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