Megan Fox speaks out about ‘very dark’ interview where she attempted to talk about being sexualised as a teen

Hollywood actor Megan Fox has finally spoken out after a viral video resurfaced in 2020 of an interview between her and Jimmy Kimmel which many interpreted as the star being ‘sexualised’.

The interview occurred during 2009 as Fox was promoting Transformers: Rise of the Fallen. During the discussion with Kimmel, she spoke out against director Michael Bay who she accused of sexualising her when she was 15 after she was cast an extra in Bad Boys II.

The scene involved her dancing in a bikini under a waterfall. Fox critically added: “I was in 10th grade, so that’s a sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.” After Kimmel and the studio audience burst out laughing, Fox said in a disheartened tone: “I was 15, I was in the tenth grade.”

Although Fox was clearly trying to make an important point about the treatment of young women in Hollywood, it was played off for laughs with Kimmel quipping: “Well, that’s really a microcosm of how all our minds work, but some of us have the decency to repress those thoughts and pretend that they don’t exist.”

This particular clip resurfaced on social media in June 2020 to outrage, with many sharing their support and solidarity for Fox and the treatment she had received, not just from Kimmel and Bay but in numerous circumstances.

Now in an interview with the Washington Post, she has admitted that the interview with Kimmel was just another example of how people reacted to her back then. The 35-year-old said: “That was a microcosm of my whole life and whole interaction with Hollywood. It was just very dark.”

After the clip went viral in 2020, Fox posted a message on Instagram thanking people for their continued support.

During the #MeToo movement Fox chose not to speak out at the time about her experiences, something which she told the New York Times in 2018 that she regretted.

She said: “Even with the #MeToo movement, and everyone coming out with stories — and one could assume that I probably have quite a few stories, and I do — I didn’t speak out for many reasons. I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim.

“And I thought if ever there were a time where the world would agree that it’s appropriate to victim-shame someone, it would be when I come forward with my story.”