Megan Fox
Fox was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to Darlene Tonachio, former Roane County, Tennessee Tourism Director, and Franklin Foxx. Fox’s father dropped an “x” from his surname. Fox has one older sister. Fox’s parents divorced when she was young and she and her sister were raised by her mother and her stepfather. Fox said of her mother and her stepfather that they “were really strict” and Fox said of her childhood that “I was grounded for all of my childhood. Not most — all” and Fox said that “I wasn’t doing anything particularly crazy,” and that “I just never appreciated authority figures preaching to me.” Fox is of Irish, French and Native American ancestry. Fox grew up in nearby Rockwood, Tennessee and she began her training in drama and dance at age five, in Kingston, Tennessee. She attended a dance class at the community center there and was involved in Kingston Elementary School’s chorus and the Kingston Clippers swim team. At 10-years-old, after moving to St. Petersburg, Florida, Fox continued her training. She attended Morningside Academy, a private Christian school, in Port St. Lucie, during her middle school years and finished her high school education at St. Lucie West Centennial High School, in Port St. Lucie, though when Fox was 17 she tested out of school via correspondence from St. Lucie West Centennial High School.
Fox said that in middle school, she was bullied and picked on and that she ate lunch in the bathroom to avoid being “pelted with ketchup packets”. Fox said that the problem was not her looks, but that “[she had] always gotten along better with boys,” and that “rubbed some people the wrong way.” Fox also said of high school that “but I was not, ever for a second, popular — I mean, never” and that “everyone hated me, and I was a total outcast, my friends were always guys, I have a very aggressive personality, and girls didn’t like me for that. I’ve had only one great girlfriend my whole life.” Fox also said of school that “I just hated school, period. I wasn’t interested and I wasn’t getting anything from it. I’ve never been a big believer in formal education and I always knew what I wanted to do, which was be an actress — the education I was getting seemed irrelevant. So, I was sort of checked out on that part of it.” Fox said of her living condition as a teenager that “My mom lived with me until I started making enough money to support myself,” and that “I was asking her to leave the entire time. I’d been ready to move out since I was, like, 14.”
Early work
At 16, Fox made her acting debut in the 2001 film Holiday in the Sun, as the spoiled heiress Brianna Wallace and rival of Alex Stewart (Ashley Olsen). The film was released Direct-to-DVD on November 20, 2001. She made her television debut on the television series Ocean Ave. as Ione Star. The series, however, was quickly canceled after two seasons, from 2002-2003. She also served as an uncredited extra in Bad Boys 2 in 2003. That same year, she guest-starred on What I Like About You, appearing in the episode “Like a Virgin (Kinda).”
In 2004, Fox guest-starred on Two and a Half Men in the episode “Camel Filters and Pheromones”. That same year she made her film debut in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen co-starring opposite Lindsay Lohan. In the film Fox plays a supporting role in the film, Carla Santi, a rival of Lola (Lindsay Lohan). She was then cast on the failed television comedy The Help appearing in only three episodes. The show focused on the hard-lucked life of a beauty school dropout, Fox portrayed the part of Cassandra Ridgeway, a spoiled daughter. She also appeared in the television film Crimes Of Fashion as Candace. The movie premiered on July 25, 2004 on ABC Family. After the cancellation of the television series The Help, Fox joined the cast on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith as a recurring role, in which she portrayed Sydney Shanowski, replacing Nicole Paggi in the role. In 2006 the television show was canceled due to poor ratings. Fox appeared in 36 episodes from seasons 2 to 3.
2007-Present
In 2007, Fox won the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, based on the toy and cartoon saga of the same name. Fox played the love interest of Shia LaBeouf’s character Sam Witwicky. Fox was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category of “Breakthrough Performance”, and was also nominated for three Teen Choice Awards, in the category of “Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure”, “Choice Movie: Breakout Female”, and “Choice Movie: Liplock”. Fox has signed on for two more Transformers sequels.
In June 2007, Fox was cast in a minor role in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring alongside Jeff Bridges, Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst. The character Fox portrayed is Sophie Maes, a love interest of Sydney Young (Simon Pegg). The film premiered on October 3, 2008. The film was a box-office failure, only making $17 million worldwide against a $28 million dollar budget.
In 2008, Fox appeared as the character Lost in Whore. The film centers around a group of young hopeful teenagers who have come to Hollywood in the hopes of an acting career find that the business is harder than they had ever imagined. The film was released October 20, 2008. Fox starred alongside Rumer Willis.
Megan Fox at Hollywood Life Magazine’s 7th Annual Breakthrough Awards.
Fox reprised her role as Mikaela Banes in the Transformers sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There was some controversy surrounding Fox’s appearance while filming the sequel of Transformers when Michael Bay, the movie’s director, ordered the actress to gain 10 pounds. During interviews promoting the film in June 2009, Fox was asked how she would stop Megatron from demolishing the world. She replied, “I’d make a deal with him and instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?” This response was panned by the conservative NewsBusters, writing that “While Fox may be a star on the big screen, her words certainly don’t make her shine.” The Naples Daily News was also highly critical of her comments. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen premiered on June 8, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. After its UK release on June 19, 2009, the film was released in regular and IMAX theaters in the United States on June 24.
Fox is set to have her first lead role in a film, playing the title character in Jennifer’s Body. Fox will play Jennifer Check, a mean-girl cheerleader possessed by a demon who begins feeding off the boys in a Minnesota farming town. The film center’s around Jennifer’s possession and Jennifer’s “plain-jane” best friend Needy’s (Amanda Seyfried) attempt to break the curse. The film is set to be released on September 18, 2009. In addition to Seyfried, Fox will star alongside Adam Brody in the Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody’s second feature film.
In April 2009, Fox began working on her next film, Jonah Hex. Fox will portray a supporting character, Leila, a gun-wielding beauty and Jonah Hex’s (Josh Brolin) love interest. The film is set to be released on August 10, 2010. In addition to Brolin, Fox will star alongside Will Arnett.
In early April, 2009, Fox signed on to the lead female role in the upcoming 2011 film The Crossing. The plot centers around “a young couple gets caught up in a drug trafficking scheme during their vacation to Mexico.”
There were rumours that Megan Fox was being cast as the replacement for actress Angelina Jolie in the third Lara Croft: Tomb Raider franchise movie, but Fox herself has denied that she was taking the role.
In an interview Megan Fox says Michael Bay movies include sexy women.
