During a special screening of 2009’s campy cult classic Jennifer’s Body at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, star Megan Fox recalled her experience with “ruthless” paparazzi and how the Karyn Kusama-helmed project provided catharsis for her during a time when she was “struggling a lot with fame.”
When asked if there was any advice she would bestow upon her younger self — then fresh off of her breakout role in Michael Bay’s Transformers — Fox characterized herself at the time as “so lost, so full of that rage that I had towards how I had been treated in the industry,” per People.
More from Deadline
Particularly difficult to deal with was the paparazzi’s misogynistic treatment, she said, sharing an anecdote about attending the premiere of the supernatural comedy horror film. “I remember the paparazzi were so ruthless back then — the way they would talk to women,” the actress recalled. “And I walked out just to try to get to my car, and they’re all shooting. And one guy’s like, ‘Megan, why are you such a bitch?’ And another guy is like, ‘Megan, do you think you’re overrated? The internet says so,’ and I’m just trying to do my job.”
She continued, “I was asked to be at this premiere. I’m trying to get to my car. And so I had all of this grief and sorrow and also anger and rage that needed a place to go,” adding that the film gave her “permission to be unhinged even in between takes or maybe the entire time we were there, that was very cathartic for me.”
On being able to embody “that darker feminine energy that no one really wants to allow,” Fox described how she “resonated” with the script and her character Jennifer, a popular high schooler who undergoes a demonic transformation outside her control after being sacrificed by a local indie rock band.
“There’s something about that, whether it’s just perceived or not, I felt like I was being persecuted at that time in my career, and I was struggling a lot with fame and kind of traumatized by fame,” she said. “And so I resonated with those deeper layers of … before she becomes a monster, she’s just a teenage girl who gets sacrificed for somebody else’s gain. And that very much resonated because that’s kind of how I came into this industry. I think I was 19 when I made my first big movie, and that, I felt like, was reflecting back these energies that existed inside of myself.”
She concluded, “[The film] was very healing for me because I was really struggling at that time. And if I had been able to warn myself or give myself advice or have any sort of grounding or clarity, I don’t think you would’ve gotten the performance that you got.”
As fans of the darkly comic bildungsroman are aware, there may be more to come in the universe of Jennifer’s Body, as Kusama confirmed to Deadline that writer Diablo Cody is penning a followup that is just as “fun and crazy” as the original sleeper hit.
Kusama also reflected on the mistreatment Fox received from the media at the time, telling Deadline, “I think [comedy is] her secret weapon is she’s really, really funny, and obviously, what’s behind that kind of humor is deep intelligence, and so she had both of those things but was clearly dismissed, attacked, mistrusted somehow for not just staying in her place. And I feel like this role spoke to something in her that she must have already been wanting to flex a little bit, given how up to that moment she had been treated in the press, and by her professional colleagues. That must have been incredibly wounding.”
Jennifer’s Body follows two polar opposite best friends, the outgoing Jennifer and bookish Needy (Amanda Seyfried), whose friendship takes a turn when the former embarks on a murderous rampage of her male classmates. Johnny Simmons, J. K. Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Adam Brody, Kyle Gallner and Chris Pratt round out the cast.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
First Appeared on
Source link
