Megan Fox Had A 'Psychological Breakdown' In 2009!

Jennifer’s Body is the story of a young woman being exploited and thrown for the career advancement of men — and how the pain of that incident ripples outward as it turns the victim into another kind of monster.

It was instead promoted as a sexy cheerleader slasher flick — with Megan Fox‘s body put oh so prominently on display.

https://giphy.com/gifs/megan-fox-jennifers-body-1rBODLxlDjeo0

For the tenth anniversary — yes, that was way back on September 18, 2009 — ET brought together the star and screenwriter Diablo Cody to talk about the horrible reception the horror film got on its initial release, and how it’s become a cult classic feminist statement after the #MeToo movement.

During the convo Cody talks about how the critical and commercial failure of Jennifer’s Body was a huge blow, even leading her to therapy; but Megan reveals what was going on with her at the time was a whole other horror.

She explains:

“There was so much going on with me at that time, that movie being picked apart was not at the top of [my list of concerns]. Because I had such a fraught relationship with the public, and the media, and journalists, and I was struggling so much at that time in general, this didn’t stand out as a particularly painful moment, it was just part of the mix.”

For those who didn’t see it, the marketing of the film was basically like a Michael Bay shot from Transformers on a loop.

https://giphy.com/gifs/megan-fox-gif-gifs-wtplavEvtCTAI

But Megan says the constant sexualization just became business as usual for her:

“It wasn’t just that movie, it was every day of my life, all the time, with every project I worked on and every producer I worked with. It preceded a breaking point for me.”

It was so much right around that time, Megan says:

“I think I had a genuine psychological breakdown where I wanted just nothing to do. I didn’t want to be seen. I didn’t want to have to take a photo, do a magazine, walk a carpet. I didn’t want to be seen in public at all because…

I believed that I was going to be mocked, or spat at, or someone was going to yell at me, or people would stone me or savage me for just being out and being whatever. I didn’t look perfect or I was too fat or too thin. I was stupid or I was offensive. I was a waste of space or a bad actress. Whatever you could think of, I anticipated experiencing that, because my belief system was that the world wasn’t going to accept me, so I went through a very dark moment after that.”

Eesh.

Speaking of Michael Bay, it was in 2009 when Megan poked fun at the director’s manufactured “Hitler” personality on set. She also openly discussed being sexualized by the director on the set of Bad Boys II, during which time she was only 15 years old. She told Jimmy Kimmel:

“They were shooting this club scene, and they brought me in, and I was wearing a stars-and-stripes bikini and a red cowboy hat and, like, six-inch heels. He approved it, and they said, you know, Michael, she’s 15 so you can’t sit her at the bar and she can’t have a drink in her hand, so his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet. At 15, I was in 10th grade. So that’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works.”

Perhaps the ickiest part was when she revealed Bay made her come to his house and let him film her washing his car as part of the “audition” for Transformers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng8c7aFiW0Y

Her public disclosures were met with a smear campaign not unlike what Harvey Weinstein did to Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd. Megan was immediately labeled as difficult; for a while she had one of the worst reputations in Hollywood.

An infamous open letter from Transformers crew members which referred to Megan as “dumb-as-a-rock” and “unfriendly bitch” and even “Ms. Sourpants” was later reportedly discovered to be the brainchild of Bay himself.

That was all around the time of the Jennifer’s Body press junket, and Megan was not silent about what was happening to her.

She recalls to Diablo:

“I feel like I was sort of out and in front of the #MeToo movement before the #MeToo movement happened, I was speaking out and saying, ‘Hey, these things are happening to me and they’re not OK.

And everyone was like, ‘Oh well, f**k you. We don’t care, you deserve it.’ Because everybody talked about how you looked or how you dressed or the jokes you made.”

Wow.

That is basically how we remember people treated Megan at that time. Damn.

Like the film, it feels like she was both ahead of her time AND unfairly maligned.

Diablo says even in 2019 she’s still afraid to even discuss her own #MeToo experiences:

“I have a lot to say, but to be honest, I am still terrified people will say, ‘Well she was a stripper, we don’t really care. Does she really have a right to talk about being sexually objectified or being put through s**t in Hollywood? Because she made that choice for herself and her story is not valid.’ So I am scared.”

Megan commiserates, saying she doesn’t even know if there’s “a space in feminism” as it exists now for her:

“Even though I consider myself a feminist, I feel like feminists don’t want me to be a part of their group. What is supporting other females if there is only certain ones of us we support? If I have to be an academic or have to be non-threatening to you in some way? Why can’t I be a part of the group as well?”

Hmm. We don’t know to which feminists she’s referring, but that is so completely against what the fight for equality is supposed to be about.

She adds:

“Considering all of the stuff that has happened since then, and is happening on a regular basis in this country, and with celebs [stories] we have everyday, I never really did anything that crazy. But I was really dragged through the coals for a lot of it.”

Thankfully Megan has gotten well beyond her “dark moment.” Hell, she even made peace with Michael Bay a few years later, oddly enough. He then cast her in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reimagining, which for him, we guess, is a kind of olive branch.

For Megan, now a happy mother of three, everything has brought her to where she is:

“At that time I felt like I was suffering but now having a different outlook and having grown the way that I have grown, it made me a much better human being. Sometimes we look at things because we have a specific map of how we’re gonna get to this goal and what our future is supposed to look like. And when something doesn’t happen we consider it a failure or we consider it that we’ve lost something, that we’re suffering and the universe is against us. But the opposite is true — the universe is always conspiring on our behalf to weave everything together for good, but you just have to shift your perspective.”

The biggest leap forward for Megan to reevaluate her perspective on the world was becoming a mom. She says:

“I think it took getting pregnant — that was the first real breakthrough where my consciousness shifted and my mind opened up and I was able to see from a birds eye view and breath and take it in. And then another kid, and then another kid and with every kid I feel like that’s always been the doorway into a better version of myself.”

Preach, gurl!

Unfortunately that brings Megan to her new problem with the entertainment business…

“Being a mother is not something really respected in this industry. If anything it’s considered as a handicap. And that’s unfortunate because it’s not acknowledged, what we’re juggling, what we’re doing.”

She recalls:

“After I had one of my sons, I had to go do reshoots, I gave birth [and] they called me to do reshoots two weeks afterward. They were like, ‘Is she ready to do reshoots?’ And I was like, ‘No, a person just came out of my vagina, I’m not ready to go do reshoots. What are you talking about?’ So they were graceful and gracious and I think I went back, like, four or five weeks later.”

And also:

“Trying to negotiate into being allowed to go to my trailer to breastfeed my baby was almost impossible… because they don’t understand… It’s a hostile environment for new mothers or any mothers in general.”

The two moms talk about how “draining” it is looking after their kids and how that work is never given its proper weight when they’re (still) being judged.

Megan says:

“I get this all the time, people will be like, ‘You just don’t really work that much.’ And it’s like, I have given birth, I have gestated and given birth to three children. I stared [sic] in a movie that opened world wide, number one — twice! I was on a critically acclaimed sitcom. I f**king executive produced and created a show about archaeological controversies! How much more f**king productive does a f**king women need to be? F**k you!”

Ha!

What do YOU think of how Megan has been treated, then and now??

[Image via WENN/20th Century Fox/YouTube.]