“I felt like I needed to defend him”: Before Transformers, Megan Fox Stood Up for Michael Bay Sexualizing Her at Just 15 Only to Get Fired by Steven Spielberg Later

Megan Fox defended Michael Bay’s 𝑠e𝑥ulized potrayal of women when she worked with for the first time at 15-years-old.

Megan Fox is an extremely well-known figure in Hollywood. Though now she is best recognized through her high-profile and complicated relationship with Machine Gun Kelly, she has starred in some very well-known projects. Jennifer’s Body, the Transformers franchise, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Til Death are great examples of just how skilled the actress is, with her characters being a cultural phenomenon years after their initial appearances.

Megan Fox

Unfortunately, the one this that is also frequently brought up when talking about Fox’s career is her very public dispute with director, Michael Bay. With the actress complaining about her being overly 𝑠e𝑥ualized in his projects and him inevitably firing her after Steven Spielberg told him to, it is safe to say that there is bad blood between the two. It would seem, however, that early into her time working with the director, Fox ended up defending the way he portrayed women on screen.

Megan Fox Defended Michael Bay When She Was Younger

Michael Bay’s portrayal of women in his films has been harshly criticized ever since he gained notoriety as a director. Being accused of only looking at women through the male gaze and making his films with the sole intention of pleasing his male audience, has become one of the most well-known things about him. One of the biggest reasons for this was his portrayal of Megan Fox in all of the films that she has been a part of. The earliest and most concerning example of this would be his 2003 film, Bad Boys II. 

Megan Fox

During the filming of this, the actress was only fifteen years old, playing the role of a character called, ‘Bikini Kid Dancing Under Waterfall’. This along with the fact that Bay’s filmmaking style is notorious for being derogatory toward women, led to audiences getting concerned to a great degree. Whenever Fox was asked about this, at the time, she would go to great lengths to defend the filmmaker.

Megan Fox in Transformers

Fox stated that the experience “wasn’t one where I was harassed or suffered, so I felt like I needed to defend him and clarify that”.

Years since then, that actress talked about why she felt the need to do so. As revealed by Far Out, she stated this was not the Michael Bay film that she felt uncomfortable about. She simply defended the filmmaker because she felt like she had to, feeling the need to clarify the intentions behind his decisions without fully understanding them herself.

Megan Fox Got Fired By Michael Bay After Steven Spielberg’s Advice

Although Megan Fox defended Michael Bay when she worked with him for the first time, things were a lot different when they worked together moving forward. The actress once referred to the filmmakers as being very difficult to work with. She called him disruptive and dictator-like when he was working on films.

She even went on to compare him to Adolf Hitler, which ended up blowing up in her face. Fox was working with the filmmaker on Transformers at the time, and this comment resulted in her getting fired.

Megan Fox

“She was in a different world, on her BlackBerry. You gotta stay focused. And you know, the Hitler thing. Steven [Spielberg] said, “Fire her right now.””

Michael Bay talked to GQ about his reasoning for firing the actress he had worked with several times in the past. He revealed that when she was on set, the actress was not as focused as he would like. He also added that he was told by the critically acclaimed director, Steven Spielberg, to fire her, after her comments about Bay.