Megan Fox Calls Out Years Of Unfair Criticism From Hollywood: 'F**k That'

The renaissance of Megan Fox has touched many areas of her life, professionally and romantically. But it’s not just affecting how she lives in the present — it’s changing how she views her own past.

In recent years, the actress has experienced something of a cultural redemption of her early career. Her critically panned 2009 horror movie Jennifer’s Body has become a beloved feminist cult classic. Fans have also been more generous (to her anyway) about the overly-sexualized action roles that made her famous, revisiting quotes she made about Hollywood and being a young woman on a movie set in a more sympathetic light.

For her own part, Fox is finally coming to terms with the overwhelmingly negative press she was once a magnet for. In an interview with Refinery29, she described catching an old film of hers and realizing she was actually pretty decent in it. She said:

“I started getting really angry. I was like, F**k that, why did I live for a decade thinking that I was s**t at something when I was actually pretty decent at it? That led to this realization that I’d been in a self-imposed prison for so much of my life.”

As far as the recent and newly positive attention her work has gotten, Brian Austin Green’s ex was grateful — to a point. She explained:

“At the time, I would have appreciated some support; I was just stranded in open water on my own for so long. However, that built up so much strength. To have to go through a challenge like that, the resiliency that I have and the ability to survive really negative things with no support from outside forces made me a better person. So, I don’t regret it. Of course I look back and think — it would have been nice if any of you had seen this at that time that there was a bandwagon of absolute toxicity being spewed at me for years. But I appreciate the reversal of it.”

Though times have certainly changed, and our culture is — at least to some degree — more welcoming of young women willing to speak truth to power, the Transformers star expressed doubt that comments like her infamous Michael Bay interview would have been better received in 2020. Though the backlash was “hard to live through,” she speculated:

“I would have pissed off a bunch of people [no matter what].”

And though she acknowledged social media gives young stars “more control” of their “own narrative,” the actress opined that public opinion is still formed in much the same way as when she was coming up. She recalled:

“If we go back through my Rolling Stone interviews and anything I did for Vanity Fair — any of these big publications — I was always an eloquent speaker, I was always a thoughtful person, I had things to say. I wasn’t shallow, I wasn’t vapid, I wasn’t vain, I was none of those things, and still the image was manipulated by the people who were putting out the soundbites. To a degree, that’s still the same.”

After being forged in the fire of the Hollywood crucible — and shedding the weight of others’ opinions — Meg has evolved as a person and an artist, and that evolution will be reflected in her future career. She shared:

“I don’t have to change how I look for roles. My vibration changed, so the roles that are coming to me are different. I sent out into the universe that I transcended to a new stage, so now all the scripts that are coming in for me are more elevated. They are different; they carry more gravity. I’m excited about that. I feel really comfortable with the space I’m in right now.”

Sounds like Megan is in a really good place! (And knows The Secret or something!) We are SO looking forward to her next chapter!

[Image via Megan Fox/Instagram]