 Megan Fox Interview
Mikaela is a bit of a Tomboy Like Me
Megan Fox has come a long way from dressing up in a banana suit outside the Florida smoothie store she worked in five years ago. “I guess you could say that was my first acting gig,” the 21-year-old star of the blockbuster `Transformers' says with a chuckle, referring to a former day job which required her to occasionally stand outside the store in that suit to attract the attention of customers. “My mom took pictures because everyone thought it was super funny,” she adds with chagrin.
These days Megan is attracting attention from a more elite group of customers, including director Michael (Armageddon) Bay and producer Steven Spielberg, who chose her for the female lead in their new special effects-laden film version of Transformers, based on the popular 1980s cartoon series about a battle between two alien races that comes to earth. In the film, Megan plays Mikaela, a high school student who teams up with nerdy fellow student Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) to help one alien race, the Autobots, defeat the other, the Decepticons, as the survival of humankind hangs in the balance.
“When I first heard they were casting the movie I thought, `how are they going to make this film?',” she confesses, “because it's all about robots and it's a very intricate process of transforming from what I'd seen in the cartoon. I never thought I had a chance of being involved but was just curious. Then over the course of a month I continued to audition and when I got the role, I was incredibly excited!”
Megan describes her character Mikaela as “a bit of a tomboy.
“She goes through her own journey as well,” she adds. “She starts off with this jock boyfriend and realizes that is not who she should be with when she meets Sam. Then she gets accidentally sucked into this alien battle through Sam and, through the course of the film, she begins to develop a relationship with him.”
Both Shia and Megan are the same age and bonded on the set as they pondered how this blockbuster would change their lives. “We talked about what this movie meant to our careers every day on the set,” she acknowledges.
Megan may be somewhat new to Hollywood but she admits she caught the acting bug many years earlier. “When I was two years old I saw The Wizard of Oz and I was obsessed with it,” she recalls with a smile. “When I was three, I made everyone call me Dorothy and not Megan and I told my mom I would be an actress - so for my whole life that was always in the back of my head.”
Megan started training in drama and dance in Tennessee when she was five and continued pursuing her dream when the family moved to Florida when she was ten, acting in local theatre productions including `Godspell' and modeling after winning several awards at the American Modeling and Talent Convention in 1999. She made her move to Los Angeles at sixteen and made her film debut just months later in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie `Holiday in the Sun' before landing a regular role in the sitcom `Hope & Faith', starring Kelly Ripa and shooting in New York.
“I felt blessed and that I was on the right path because I was working as an actress right from the start in Los Angeles and didn't have to beg people to hire me or work in other jobs to support myself,” she says. “But when I got to be a part of this movie, I really felt like I was part of something special and my dream had gone to a whole other level - there is no way to prepare for it.”
Megan sounds refreshingly down-to-earth about the hype surrounding her career these days and is confident her new success won't transform her into a tabloid fixture. “I think you are a certain type of person and you either stay that way and stay who you are, or you get influenced by people around you,' she says firmly. “I've always been very strong-willed and I've always been the same person my whole life and surrounded myself with people who are the same, so I think that's how you keep yourself sane in this business.”
Ironically, Megan related more to Shia's nerdy role in the film than playing the popular girl in high school. “I was an outcast in high school,” she confides. “Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm just strange and I've been weird my whole life! I'm really silly and really goofy and I'm sort of a tomboy so I was certainly not popular in high school,” she adds.
Which is probably why she's uncomfortable and embarrassed when asked about her new sexy image, including a string of websites that have sprung up devoted to her and her inclusion in various `sexy' lists including Maxim magazine's 100 Sexiest Women in the World, where she came in No. 18. “I hosted the Maxim magazine party so I know I was number 18 on their list,” she says, “but as far as other lists people tell me about and the websites, I guess I'm flattered but I don't read my own press because I'm super shy like that.”
Megan's immediate focus is her career, including a possible independent movie in London later this year and a sequel to Transformers? “I would be blessed to be part of that sequel,” she said excitedly. “I definitely think there is a possibility of one and I've heard rumors of one so I just hope I get to be involved if it happens.”
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