Foxy lady ready for a change

Megan Fox. Photo / Supplied

Hollywood's hottest starlet Megan Fox brought London to a standstill last week for the premiere of Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen.

Just like the gigantic robot that towered outside the Odeon Leicester Square, the crowded scene was larger than life. Dressed to kill, the sexy American actress showed off some of her more prominent tattoos (she has eight) in a backless black dress. Returning to the blockbuster franchise as mechanic Mikaela Barnes, girlfriend to good guys Autobots' human foil Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), Fox is again eye-candy in a sequel with more massive explosions and spectacular fight scenes in exotic locales such as Egypt and Jordan.

"We try to push the limit with each film and we really pushed the limits from the first movie to this one in terms of the technological advances that people wouldn't necessarily notice," says director Michael Bay. "It's all about complicated algorithms - like making the Pyramids come apart took one guy six months of writing code. Shots like that stretch the limits of computer memory. We're also the first film to shoot scenes especially for Imax."

From Independence Day to Armageddon, the Los Angeles-born director has garnered a reputation for bombastic blockbusters that pull in audiences even if they alienate the critics.

Nevertheless eyebrows were raised when the 44-year-old chose to make Transformers, based on Hasbro's popular 1980s line of toy robots that can turn into cars and even planes.

"A lot of studios didn't have faith in the film and actually turned it down," he says. "It's not a good sign when you've got a lot of your friends being blunt with you: 'Why the hell are you doing this movie?'

The 2007 film grossed US$708 million ($1.1 billion) at the box office, making Revenge of the Fallen an inevitability. It also made stars out of its two young leads. Since the first film, LaBeouf has played the irascible archaeologist's son in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And Fox has gathered a legion of slobbering male fans and completed two other movies. Not bad for an actress who only turned 23 in May.

The Tennessee native has been voted the sexiest woman on the planet in numerous magazine polls, although she takes such praise in her stride.

"It's not that it's limiting, I just get really embarrassed," she admits. "Have you ever been given a compliment and you just can't take it because you don't agree with it or feel comfortable taking it? It's like that non-stop every day. But the movie was so successful globally that it has exposed me to people who had never seen me before. That's why things like that happen."

With the extra attention has come unwanted scrutiny, too. Her split from TV actor fiance Brian Austin Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) after a four-and-a-half year relationship hit the headlines in February and she has said being on her own again was "very scary". On the red carpet for Transformers 2, she took the opportunity to deny reports of a romance with Robert Pattinson, the heart-throb star of vampire movie Twilight.

"I've never been in a room with him so those rumours aren't true," she told MTV.

With her increasing profile, Fox may have to be more guarded towards the media in future. She was recently accused of advocating "recreational drug use" after discussing the legalisation of marijuana in a British magazine profile.

"I have the best intentions when I do those sorts of interviews, when I speak the way that I do. It's unfortunate when the press knowingly choose to twist the meaning of my words. That discourages me from being outspoken and honest. I remember reading bullshit interviews when I was growing up and watching these created images that people present to you on television that you know are fake and manufactured. I'm trying not to be one of those."

Like LaBeouf, Fox enjoyed working again with Bay, who is a notoriously hard taskmaster. "It's like constant chaos and we coined the term 'Bayhem'," she says with a laugh. "It's exciting. He is rough with his actors on purpose."

For his part, Bay claims that he is simply a "very passionate director. You have to have tremendous energy when you're trying to convince somebody that there is a robot in front of them and it's trying to eat them."

Fox certainly has no illusions about her image and the films she is currently making. Acutely aware of her place in Hollywood, she knows she's slotted into the "pin-up category". She has previously stated to media that expectations are "very low" of her ability as an actress, which "means I can only ever be an over-achiever" in the future.

So confident are film studio Paramount of Revenge of the Fallen's prospects that they have already tentatively announced that a follow-up will be released on July 4, 2011. However, that date was moved back a year after Bay insisted that he needs some time off.

Fox will no doubt be in demand before she's called on to complete a robotic trilogy. Since finishing Transformers 2, she has appeared in the zombie comedy Jennifer's Body, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) and Jonah Hex, adapted from the DC Comics western. In the latter, she plays Josh Brolin's gun-wielding love interest.

With a cast that includes well-regarded actors, including John Malkovich and Michael Fassbender, she's hoping it will literally cast her in a new light in the public's eyes.

* Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen opens in cinemas this Thursday.