Megan Fox clarifies treatment on Michael Bay movies after old clip resurfaces

An interview Megan Fox did with Jimmy Kimmel back in 2009 has resurfaced online and put both Fox, and her treatment at the hands older male gatekeepers in the spotlight, especially the sexual exploitation of young women and girls in the entertainment industry and the public’s acceptance of these narratives. In the short clip that's gone viral, Fox talks about her first experience working with director Michael Bay when she was an extra on Bad Boys II and 15 years old.“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. And he [Michael] approved it,” said Fox. “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. That’s sort of a microcosm of how Bay’s mind works,” said Fox.[video_embed id='1965505']RELATED: Megan Fox told Brian Austin Green she's happier alone[/video_embed]“Well, that’s really a microcosm of how all our minds work,” said Kimmel, to laughs and applause from the audience. “Some of us have the decency to repress those thoughts and pretend that they don’t exist.”

clip from 2009 where megan fox tells a story about michael bay sexualising her as a 15 y/o

the crowd laughs, and kimmel makes gross jokesteen girls being preyed on by older men has never been taken seriously and still isn’t pic.twitter.com/t1rF80UTj1— liz w ? (@reservoird0gs) June 21, 2020

The late-night host started trending on Twitter with a call to cancel Kimmel for his response to Fox’s story. This comes less than a week after old sketches of Kimmel performing in Blackface resurfaced. On June 19, Kimmel announced he was taking a break from hosting his nightly show for the rest of the summer to spend time with his family and today he shared an apology for impersonating Black celebrities, saying "Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices."For her part, Fox has responded to the decade-old interview clips on social media, posting a lengthy message on her Instagram account where she clarified her treatment by Bay, whom she famously compared to Hitler in a 2009 interview, and Transformers producer Steven Spielberg and thanked supporters for their kind words.

 

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May we all continue waking up❤️

A post shared by Megan Fox (@meganfox) on Jun 22, 2020 at 6:15pm PDT

“I was around 15 or 16 years old when I was an extra in Bad Boys II. There are multiple interviews where I shared the anecdote of being chosen for the scene and the conversations that took place surrounding it. It's important to note however that when I auditioned for Transformers I was 19 or 20,” Fox wrote. “I did 'work' (me pretending to know how to hold a wrench) on one of Michael's Ferrari's during one of the audition scenes. It was at the Platinum Dunes studio parking lot, there were several other crew members and employees present and I was at no point undressed or anything similar. So, as far as this particular audition story I was not underaged at the time and I was not made to 'wash' or work on someone's cars in a way that was extraneous from the material in the actual script.”The actress said that she "never felt preyed upon" by either Bay or Spielberg, though she was fired from the Transformers franchise apparently at the behest of Spielberg for speaking out about how Bay was a "nightmare to work for."She does, however, allude to other misogynistic experiences in her career about which she's remaining tight-lipped for now. “These specific instances were inconsequential in a long and arduous journey along which I have endured some genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry. There are many names that deserve to be going viral in cancel culture right now, but they are safely stored in the fragmented recesses of my heart," Fox wrote.She ended her message by writing, "I'm thankful to all of you who are brave enough to speak out and I'm grateful to all of you who are taking it upon yourselves to support, uplift, and bring comfort to those who have been harmed by a violent and toxic societal paradigm."Bay shared Fox’s Instagram message, adding “I personally think Megan is fantastic. I’m proud to have worked with her, and still am planning on working with her."[video_embed id='1982317']BEFORE YOU GO: Justin Bieber speaks out following sexual assault allegations[/video_embed]