Megan Fox has opened up about how the public perception of her as a “shallow succubus” dictated the types of roles she was offered.
Fox – who first found mainstream fame in 2007’s Transformers – has previously spoken out against the pervading misogyny that impacted her career.
“I think there has been a pervasive perception of me as a shallow succubus, if that makes any sense, for at least the first decade of my career,” she told The Washington Post.
“And then that started to change more recently as people revisited my interviews, listened to me speak and started to see me in a different way.”
Because of her physical appearance, Fox said: “I was never really established as having been talented.”
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The 35-year-old added that she noticed “people were surprised” to find she was funny when she starred in the hit comedy series New Girl as Reagan.
“More than being overlooked for my ability to handle comedy sometimes, I’ve always been surprised by how easy it was for people to overlook that I’m relatively intelligent,” she said.
“I was like, how does that get so lost when there’s ridiculous amounts of material that can educate you otherwise?”
The This if 40 star reflected on her early career, stating: “I was so lost and trying to understand, like, how am I supposed to feel value or find purpose in this horrendous, patriarchal, misogynistic hell that was Hollywood at the time.
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Sign up“Because I had already been speaking out against it and everyone, including other women, received me in a very negative way for doing it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Fox said that she would like to see her 2009 horror film Jennifer’s Body rebooted as a TV series.
Despite an initial negative critical reception, the film – directed by Juno’s Diablo Cody – has since become a cult classic.
