Megan Fox became a superstar seemingly overnight after her starring role in Michael Bay’s Transformers film. But she counted on other projects to display her range as an actor.
Which was why Fox considered doing Jennifer’s Body a gamble, as the movie might have exposed her acting flaws.
Why Megan Fox was perfect for ‘Jennifer’s Body’
Jennifer’s Body was the 2009 horror feature starring Fox as a young high school student who finds herself possessed by a demon. The film wasn’t too successful at the time of its release, as it didn’t meet expectations financially or critically. But Jennifer’s Body has managed to get a second chance at life over the years thanks to fans appreciating it more.
Although the movie was directed by Karyn Kusama, it was the brainchild of screenwriter Diablo Cody. Being a fan of the genre, Cody had always wanted to write a horror film. She was finally entrusted with penning a horror movie after writing the successful independent film Juno. For the writer, Fox was always the first choice to play the titular character in Jennifer’s Body. That was because Cody saw something unique in her Transformers performances.
“You have mystique, which particularly now in this era of social media and people being completely accessible, it’s rare,” Cody once told Fox herself according to Entertainment Tonight. “Old movie stars had mystique. It was hard to imagine, for instance– You know what, I’m not going to name names. I will just say, many of the actresses in your cohort, I could not imagine playing Jennifer.”
Megan Fox was once worried ‘Jennifer’s Body’ would expose her as a bad actor
Starring in Jennifer’s Body came with a considerable amount of stress for the actor. She was completely fascinated and excited about Cody’s project, but she wanted to make sure she’d live up to the film’s expectations.
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“It was a difficult movie to make because I was under a lot of pressure to do Diablo’s script justice,” Fox once told The Telegraph. “So I was nervous about that. I was always questioning myself and trying to bring some real elements to Jennifer. I wanted people to feel empathy for her; I wanted her to be a real person, and not a caricature, like some of the characters I may have played in the past.”
Fox also considered Jennifer’s Body a true test of her acting ability. Unlike in her other blockbuster films, there would be little special effects for her to hide behind. This meant that the film might partially live or die on her performance.
“It might be a complete failure on my part,” Fox once said according to Female First. “But the fact that I had to really put myself out there is totally different than being able to hide behind the magic of ILM, which did special effects for Transformers. That’s no hiding from anything. There’s nothing there to distract you from my performance. So if it’s bad, it’s going to be f***ing bad for me. And if it’s good, then I will have achieved something on some level.”
Megan Fox found herself in a self-imposed prison because of acting criticisms
Fox’s confidence in her acting wavered due to the opinions of others. In a fairly recent interview, Fox admitted it had taken a toll on her. But when her career rebounded after years of feeling targeted by the entertainment industry, she found new perspective from the experience.
“I started getting really angry,” she said in a 2020 interview with Refinery29. “I was like, F*** that, why did I live for a decade thinking that I was s*** 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.”
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