In an incredible career transformation, Megan Fox has temporarily hung up her girl-next-door persona — which she perfected in director Michael Bay’s two
Transformer box office phenomenons — to dip her toes into the murky, blood-red waters of horror/thriller movies. In a film directed by Karyn Kusama, with a script penned by
Juno scribe Diablo Cody, Fox plays Jennifer, a popular, small-town cheerleader who becomes possessed by an unknown, revenge-seeking evil entity who is hell-bent on killing every sex-hungry guy she find. A naughty, bi-curious little demon, she also shares an onscreen kiss with her best friend (Amanda Seyfried) before…well, you know the rest if you’ve seen the commercials.
Sitting down to speak with the outspoken and charming starlet on two recent occasions — during a Comic-Con press conference and a L.A. press day — to discuss her part in
Jennifer’s Body, Fox recalls how she got into character, why she chose to do a film in a genre she’s not particularly fond of, her girl-on-girl kiss, her recent tiff with director Bay and its possible effect on her returning to
Transformers 3.
So, how was it playing a character that is so over the top and so incredibly outrageous? “I think what I loved about the movie is it’s so unapologetic and how completely inappropriate it is at all times. That was my favorite part about the script and about the character. It’s fun to be able to say the s--t that she got to say and get away with it and how people find it charming.”
Fox
Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body
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“I think that it’s necessary. You didn’t want her to just be a character that, you know, you hated and that you were happy to see what happens to her happen. Like I kind of wanted people to miss her at the end of the movie. It would be easy to play it that way, and I think there were just a couple of key scenes that I chose in my mind to try to make as realistic as possible because she was clearly — once you get into the flesh of the story, she was victimized. She was a victim before she started preying on people. I think she was a victim probably much earlier in her life before you even… before the movie even starts. So I wanted people to feel that, sure.”
What did you have to do to make her a little more animalistic? “I didn’t really wrap my head around what I wanted to do with the character in that situation. Like, I personally always find something really scary about how you watch little girls they grow up learning to manipulate their dads by baby talking them and then they grow up — and I’m sure you’ve had a girlfriend or a wife who baby talks you whenever she wants something. And so there was an aspect of that that I wanted to the character because that scares me. It’s just so sick on so many levels. She needs to be intimidating and I feel like because I seem so little girlish sometimes that I didn’t have a lot of confidence, that I would be intimidating. So I was trying to mix aggressive and also that psychotic little Lolita.”
Those who have seen the trailer have gotten a sense of how scary and how funny it can be, but how sexy does this movie really get? “Oh this movie is so sexy. You better put on your fucking sexy shoes for this movie. (laughs) I mean, there’s a relationship that happens. There’s a relationship between my character and Amanda’s (Seyfried) character that is, I guess, depending on who you are, either a common relationship that you grew up with or not but there’s sort of a hint of -- there’s like a little bit of a lesbian relationship that happens. There’s a girl-on-girl kiss. I feel like it’s an homage to that but also we poke fun at how common that is in horror movies. And beyond that, before every kill there’s a seduction that occurs. These boys have to be seduced into getting close enough to this dead girl for her to devour them. So it does get sexy. I think I’m pretty sexy in it.”
Obviously, I have to ask you about making out with Amanda. How was that? “She hated it. She was horrified.” (laughs)
Did you help her? “I didn’t help her; I just kissed her. I had to do what I had to do. (Laughs) I felt really bad that she was traumatized by it.”
Did you have any trepidation towards playing this type of role, and once you actually started doing some of these scenes, how was the experience for you in terms of the acting change, like from what you’re normally used to doing? “Oh, you mean from
Transformers to making this movie? How are they different? Well, obviously, there’s no distractions, like there’s no robots to distract you from whatever performance I do give. So, if it’s terrible, you’re gonna f--king know that it’s really terrible. That, of course, is intimidating but I think the character was so much fun for me. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. I was just trying to have fun with it and I felt like I was able to make fun of my own image as to how some people might perceive Megan Fox to be. I was just sort of flying freely and I hope some of it works.”
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Fox
Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body
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b]Are you a fan of scary movies as a general rule? Is the horror genre one that you’re naturally drawn to?“I’m actually not. I don’t ever, ever watch scary movies because I have a very intense fear of the dark and the last horror movie I saw, I think it was called
Tooth Fairy, and it was out in 2005 or something, and I was like fifteen years old, and I saw it and I slept with my mother for two weeks afterwards. I get really affected by them. So, I think for me to be able to play something that I would normally be frightened by was really intriguing and interesting.”
How did you react when you first saw Jennifer’s Body? “I was doing ADR on it, and I didn’t know that they had done more sound design since the last time I’d seen it, and so we were watching the clip that I was going to add a scream to and I remember the screams that I did on set and I didn’t know they had added more. So, when I got to that part, I literally jumped and screamed inside the looping booth. It frightened me and it shook me up for five minutes. I couldn’t do my ADR because I was like, ‘Holy shit! That was really scary!’ It’s cool to see myself being able to scare people because I’m just a little girl, going, ‘Look at me, I’m so sweet.’”
Even though you’re not a big horror movie fan, do you have any favorites? “I’m a
Near Dark junkie. I need to see that movie every year just to get through life.”
Megan, because you are this ultimate fantasy in the movie and every guy in the school will do anything to get to you, how do you feel about female empowerment? Is sexuality a huge empowerment for women? I think your character even mentions that in the movie.” “I think that it should be. I think that God or the universe or whatever you believe in, they gave men brut physical strength and they gave women their sexuality. It’s so easy to control all of you with it, so I don’t know why I wouldn’t embrace it and allow myself to be empowered by it.”
Did you expect the amazing success of Transformers 2? Did you expect it to be so big? “Sure. It was a sleeper hit. (laughs) I had no idea that that movie could possibly turn a profit, but I believe in the studio system.”
How do you look at your career now, because of Transformers 2 becoming this phenomenal worldwide success? I think you’ve been bravely candid about saying it is really is a movie about special effects and that it’s not really about the actors so much. And yet a movie like Jennifer’s Body really is about the actors. How do you see your career going? “I have no idea. I mean, I just hope that I can still be working in ten years. When you’re in something so successful as that movie is, and it is what it is, and I think I would feel ridiculous trying to sell that movie as a performance piece because it clearly is not that. There is pressure to sort of try and prove yourself but I don’t know what … I have no idea what I’m capable of or not; I’m sort of finding that out now and testing my boundaries on that."
Do you think they’re giving you the chance to find that out? “Yeah, I’m blessed with the opportunities that I have. I can never complain about the opportunities that people are giving me — ones that I don’t even, you know, I don’t deserve. So I’m really happy about how that’s going.”
Transformers 2 director Michael Bay was a little upset with you for calling him a tyrant on the set. Were you upset or did you need to say anything else to him? “No, because he didn’t say anything to the Wall Street Journal that he wouldn’t say to my face. That’s how we talked to each other. There was no need for me to answer him in the press. He said that I was twenty-three and I say ridiculous s--t sometimes, and it’s true. I can’t argue with it.” (laughs)
So does that mean there will be no Transformer 3 for you? “Are you f--king crazy! (laughs) I’m contractually obligated to do one.”
You and Michael aren’t going to get in a fight on the set are you? “No, we love each other. He’s my best friend.”
Fox
Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body
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