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Megan Fox is Mikaela Banes Constantly teased about her last name and the style with which she wears the mantle, Megan Fox is undeniably an all-around good sport. In her first leading role in a major motion picture, Fox was thrust into the limelight of a big action movie helmed by none other than the wildest action director ever, Michael Bay. “Given that Michael's name was attached to the script and that it was planned as a summer release, I knew the movie was going to be huge,” she says, “I just had no idea how much of a part I was going to play in relation to the whole thing or what I was in for,” she says with a wink. Bay, along with his Platinum Dunes producing partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, had originally auditioned Megan Fox for their remake of “The Amityville Horror” (directed by Andrew Douglas).  When she returned to Bay's offices two years later to audition for the role of Mikaela, he saw something beyond her obvious beauty that complemented the character. “Even though Megan's relatively new to movies, she's incredibly poised and confident, and it's not phony,” says Bay.  “I also liked that no one really knew about her, which can be scary when you think about giving such a big part to someone untested, but the pairing with Shia really worked. They had a great energy.” “Michael Bay is kind of infamous,” laughs Fox. “But the more you are around him, the more obvious it becomes that he has this off-beat sense of humor.  If he yells, it's more about entertaining himself and ribbing you.  He's not a scary guy, he's funny.” “Michael's a frat boy,” says her co-star LaBeouf, “and if you're going to have a relationship with Mike, you cannot be the sentimental actor. You cannot be fearful. You have to hold your own and be tough if you're going to play with that crowd.  Michael needs people who can deal with that, who can hang in there and keep going, and Megan figured it out.” “Michael's a phenomenal director,” she says. “Audiences are coming to this movie to see robots, explosions, and jets and helicopters screaming overhead - they want to see action. Shia and I were just along for the ride,” she laughs. As Mikaela, 20-year-old Fox plays the hottest girl in high school who is not engrossed in the usual girlie interests and pursuits. Instead, she is a thinker who, like Sam, is looking for the next adventure life has to offer. “She's from the wrong side of the tracks,” Fox explains. “She's had a difficult family life and it's made her tough.  But she's a sweet girl and when Sam is ridiculed by her boyfriend she sticks up for him and breaks up with her boyfriend over the incident; it's all very melodramatic. “Mikaela's also a tomboy,” she continues, “she likes to work with cars, and she gets sucked into the whole robot world by accident. It's like she's stuck in the middle with Sam and she feels she has to protect him.” Similar to their characters, Fox and LaBeouf bonded as friends under the pressures of a fast paced, demanding production schedule. “Shia is one of the funniest people I've ever met,” Fox enthuses. “He's just naturally funny. Sometimes it was hard to get through scenes with him. And he's so good at improv, he just gets funnier and funnier, which made it harder and harder for me to stick to the script and try not to laugh. Michael loves improv and I'm terrible at it, so I always want to stick to the lines, but I tried to make it work when Shia went off. It was pretty difficult to concentrate because he's just so funny, and it doesn't help when you can see the crew behind the camera laughing.” Aside from keeping pace with her co-star, the most difficult task for Fox was keeping the film and her character believable. “How can you use `Bumblebee in a sentence and connect to it?” she asks. “How do you make talking to a 40-foot robot realistic, especially when your character is the human thread that connects the audience to the story? It was our job to keep that balance, but for me it was the hardest part of the job.” Growing up, Fox's favorite cartoon was “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” with “Strawberry Shortcake” a close second. But like thousands of other kids, the actress was also engaged by “The Transformers” series. Not only was she familiar with the television show, she paid close attention to the comic books. “I consider myself an artist,” she explains, “I've sketched and drawn from a young age and, of course, all children love cartoons, but I was taken with the animated series because of the illustration and the artwork. “To be able to draw pieces that transform from a car into a robot is pretty incredible,” she continues, “and it's not just the question of being a good artist, it's the ability to conceptualize and design a mathematical equation.” Fox's favorite Transformer is Starscream. “I'm biased,” she says, “because Starscream is the coolest toy in the series.  He's just badass.” Next Page: Josh Duhamel as Captain Lennox