Why Bay Really Gave Megan Fox the Boot from Transformers (And Ruined Her Career)
A cautionary tale on why you should not piss off the biggest director in Hollywood.
Megan Fox made her acting debut in 2001 comedy Holiday in the Sun and landed a feature role opposite Lindsay Lohan in 2004's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, but it was her role as a leading lady in the Transformers franchise that put her on the map and launched her to fame and fortune she could never have dreamed of, but it would be short-lived.
In 2007, Fox scooped the role of Mikaela Banes in the first of the sci-fi action Transformer movies and became an overnight sensation as an industry sex symbol. She was on magazine covers, attending big Hollywood events, and sitting down for interviews.
It was an interview with Wonderland that cost her her acting career, just as it was taking off, after she made a comment comparing Transformers director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler.
Was what she said really that bad? (Yes)
In the 2009 interview, Fox was asked what it was like to work with Bay, and her response was shocking and offensive. She stated: 'He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous madman reputation,' not stopping there, she added that, 'He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.'
Apart from comparing Bay to the dictator responsible for mass human genocide, Fox also called him 'hopelessly awkward,' but surprisingly, Bay was not the one inflamed by her comments.
In a later interview with GQ, the Transformers director dismissed Fox's remarks as her just trying to get a response, however Steven Spielberg, a legend in the industry as well as the executive producer for Transformers, was furious and called for her immediate termination, to which Bay obliged.
It has never been confirmed that Fox's comments were the reason for her dismissal from, but it seems to be the obvious answer.
After appearing in Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Fox swiftly was replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as the new female love interest.
Transformers was the reason Megan Fox's acting career skyrocketed, but it also led to her subsequent nosedive. Despite her controversial comments, Fox was able to mend her relationship with Bay and went on to star in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films in 2014 and 2016.
The now 37-year-old is certainly still an icon to many, but we can't help but wonder where she would be today had she not got on the wrong side of one of Hollywood's biggest directors.
Source: Wonderland, GQ.