June 20 update: Can you imagine Michael Bay taking orders from anyone? Michael Bay, the tough guy who makes bombastically macho movies such as Transformers and its sequels. The guy referred to as “Hitler” by Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen star Megan Fox.
Well, in case he himself is to be believed, Michael Bay does take orders from at least one person: Steven Spielberg, one of the executive producers of the Transformers franchise. And according to Bay, it was the Hitler comparison that did Megan Fox in.
“You know the Hitler thing,” Bay told GQ Magazine. “Steven (Spielberg) said, fire her right now.”
Megan Fox was summarily fired and Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was brought in to replace her as Shia LaBeouf’s love interest in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opens June 29. Fox and her reps said at the time that it had been Fox’s decision to leave the Transformers franchise.
Megan Fox’s Hitler comment was made to Wonderland Magazine in 2009:
[Michael Bay is] like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he’s a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he’s not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he’s so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it’s endearing to watch him.
Bay, for his part, told GQ:
I wasn’t hurt, because I know that’s just Megan. Megan loves to get a response. And she does it in kind of the wrong way. I’m sorry, Megan. I’m sorry I made you work twelve hours. I’m sorry that I’m making you show up on time. Movies are not always warm and fuzzy.
Megan Fox Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen image: Jaimie Trueblood | DreamWorks | Paramount Pictures.
And here’s Shia LaBeouf in the Los Angeles Times a little while back:
Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman-empowerment [stuff] that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael, who some people think is a very lascivious filmmaker, the way he films women. Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality. It’s summer. It’s Michael’s style. And I think [Fox] never got comfortable with it. This is a girl who was taken from complete obscurity and placed in a sex-driven role in front of the whole world and told she was the sexiest woman in America. And she had a hard time accepting it. When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk. We’re on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact. There’s no time for [LaBeouf assumes a gentle voice] ‘I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.'”
May 26
Megan Fox in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Megan Fox, who apparently will be replaced by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a Victoria’s Secret model with no acting experience, as Shia LaBeouf’s love interest in Transformers 3, had a falling out with Michael Bay because she looked too “pale” and “underweight” for the director, Jeff Sneider reports in TheWrap.
Stories about Fox’s skin color and weight being a contentious issue had already been circulating online. And as it has been reported before, Fox and others associated with the Transformers 3 production assert that she was the one who walked off the set after Bay expressed his unhappiness with her looks. And that’s when Paramount decided not to renew Fox’s contract.
According to Sneider, “while it’s technically true that Paramount declined to pick up Fox’s option, it was because the actress had already decided to walk away.” Sneider adds that Fox’s character, Mikaela Banes, was “reportedly” found in Ehren Kruger’s screenplay as recently as May 17, when production began on Transformers 3.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 23, has no acting experience. Not that much will be needed.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
May 24: Did Paramount dump Megan Fox or did Megan Fox dump Transformers 3, Michael Bay, and Paramount? It’s kind of like a lovers’ quarrel.
At Deadline.com, Nikki Finke broke the Paramount vs. Megan Fox story, asserting that Fox was dumped by the studio.
Now, comes Jeff Sneider in TheWrap, stating that Fox may indeed have been the one to get out of Transformers 3 because director Michael Bay was “verbally abusive” toward her. The source for this version of the story is “an individual close to the actress.”
Last week, however, the studio insisted: “Paramount had the unilateral right to exercise an option for Megan Fox to appear in Transformers 3. Paramount at its sole election allowed the option to lapse.”
“Given that the story broke Wednesday on Deadline,” Sneider adds, “it’s highly plausible that Paramount studio chairman Brad Grey’s well-known relationship with editor-in-chief Nikki Finke played a part in how the story was initially spun.”
In his piece, Sneider also says that “an individual close to [another] actress,” Kate Beckinsale, said that Michael Bay “wasn’t very nice” to her on the set of the expensive flop Pearl Harbor. And that Isabel Lucas declined to join her Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen costars on a publicity tour for the film because of she didn’t want to be around Bay. (Though Lucas did at least to go to the Transformers 2 Tokyo premiere.)
Gemma Arterton, recently seen in Clash of the Titans, has been rumored to be Megan Fox’s replacement in Transformers 3. Now, will Arterton be around to do that film’s promotional tour?
Photo: DreamWorks | Paramount Pictures
May 20
Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene made it to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn after some arduous negotiating that left everyone following the Twilight Saga salary saga wondering if Lutz and Greene would go Rachelle Lefevre’s way. Lefevre, who played the evil vampire Victoria in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse after reportedly playing hardball with Summit Entertainment.
Instead of Lutz and Greene, Megan Fox, 24, turned out to be the one dumped from a popular movie franchise. That’s Transformers, directed by Michael Bay and distributed by Paramount. According to reports, Fox had had a falling out with director Bay – actually, more than one, comparing Bay to Hitler at one point and recently blaming the director for her overly tanned skin color.
But then again, it may not have been Paramount that booted Fox, but Fox who booted Paramount and Transformers. Representatives for the actress have told People that “it was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best.”
In October 2009, Michael Bay announced on his blog that Transformers 3 would indeed get made, adding:
“P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.”
Both Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are considered by many to be two of the worst movies ever made. But who cares? Not Paramount. The two movies combined grossed a worldwide total of more than $1.5 billion.
In the Transformers movies, Fox played Shia LaBeouf’s paramour. That means LaBeouf will now have to find himself a new love interest. Not that the people who pay to watch something like Transformers would notice if LaBeouf’s character ended up falling in love with a shape-shifting soda can. That is, as long as there are enough deafening explosions to ensure no one will have the mental capability to think about minor details such as character and plot.
Transformers 3 is scheduled to go into production this month. Its release date has been set for July 1, 2011.
Megan Fox, whose Jennifer’s Body was a major critical and box office flop, will next be seen opposite Josh Brolin and John Malkovich in Jimmy Hayward’s supernatural Western Jonah Hex, to come out on June 18.
Photo: Paramount.