In Defense of Megan Fox: Why the "Stupid Actress" Story Needs to Go

Apparently, Megan Fox is stupid. I wouldn't know personally -- I've never seen her do an IQ test or crash a Mensa meeting. But oodles of news articles are more than happy to tell me how skull-crushingly dense she is. "She may be a movie beauty, but is Megan Fox the dumbest star ever?" screams a Daily Mail headline. "Megan Fox says 'very ridiculous things'" reads a Wall Street Journal subhed. "Fox Puts Foot in Mouth, Again," blasts ABC News.

So what heinously thick comments has this 23-year-old embodiment of male fantasies made? Well, let's see. A few weeks ago, she stirred up a fracas by telling Entertainment Weekly that "working with Michael Bay is not about an acting experience."

In other words, someone who has worked with him on two films thinks the director whose biggest credits include The Rock, Armageddon and Bad Boys II doesn't focus on raw thespian power to drive his films. So, uh, this is stupid?

Well, yes, if you place it in the context that the mainstream media (and therefore, the public) is creating: Big-money directors like Bay can (and did) pluck actresses like Fox from sitcom obscurity, outfit them in booty shorts, and cast them in mega-action flicks to ensure that every inch of the male demographic drools its way into theaters. For this, the actresses must be forever grateful, never uttering a word of rebuke, a complaint or, God forbid, an honest opinion. It's a lesson Katherine Heigl learned well after she received a royal reaming for stating that Knocked Up, her breakthrough movie, was "a little sexist." Which is stupid only insofar as it's a bit like calling Ron Paul's appearance in Bruno "a little homophobic." (Seriously, Apatow -- your main female character has no clue who Doc Brown is? Do ovaries somehow rob you of the ability to get a joke?)

But back to Fox. Also among her list of alleged idiocies, via Daily Mail:

• Calling for the legalization of pot. Wow -- so by that logic, Carlos Santana and Carl Sagan must be morons as well.
• Telling FHM last year: "I really enjoy having sex, and that's offensive to some people. Women are the quickest to call other women slags, which is sad." Which could be lifted from just about any first-person article ever published in Cosmo.
• Saying of her "Brian" tattoo, dedicated to ex-boyfriend Brian Austin Green: "I wouldn't regret the tattoo if we weren't together. I can always have a kid and name him Brian. There are options." So, uh, has anyone at the Mail ever heard of intentional irony? Or considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, a walking archetype of male desire could be making a joke?

Meanwhile, Fox has held her own in nonstop interviews, deftly navigated away from potential PR gaffes, and even managed a subtle jab or two at Bay. All while countless Web sites (this one included) have racked up pageviews by posting pictures of her libido-pumping bod while simultaneously trumpeting her stupidity.

As for those flatulence comments in GQ earlier this year -- well, who among us doesn't have a litany of moronic things we said when we were 22? My list is long and distinguished. And if you don't get that reference, maybe you're as stupid as Megan Fox.

Follow Melissa Lafsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Lafsky

Comments

[CVales]

It seems to me that Bay took the comment a little too much to heart and out of context-I might add. The journalist asked her what she thought of "acting" in Bay's films, and she said it's not really about that. That it is more about spectacle, fun, and adventure, and not some much about a character arc.

I wouldn't go to any Micheal Bay film thinking I would see an honest character portrait. And for Bay to take offense to that and insult her is really immature and plays totally into Media hype. He should have been a gentleman about it.

You know what's funny? Right after this comment, Bay was asked what he was doing next, and he said he was looking at doing a small art film. LOL>

Props to Megan Fox for keeping it real.

[Skylarstar]

Actresses are still expected to be pretty and dumb. She had the courage to speak her truth. A mortal sin for an ingenue.

[Branimir9000]

I think she's a genius!

[Snowflower]

It's called backlash. In Hollywood, everyone gets backlash from time to time.

[LMPE]

Give her a few years. If she acts in any serious movies, it'll be OK.

[cdub1991]

I've never completely understood this anti-Fox thing. While she says some pretty outrageous things, she actually seems pretty self-aware to me.

[copelli21]

Well, it seems Hollywood prefers their women dumb, especially if they're pretty.

OMG, could it be Megan Fox is gorgeous and actually has a brain!! Well, that's just too much to take.....so let's tear her down and put her in her place. (just shut up and look pretty, lil girl)

She was absolutely right about Michael Bay's films. Who the hell goes looking for Shakespeare caliber acting in a Michael Bay film! C'mon!

Seems to me the person with delusions and ridiculous notions is Michael Bay.

[knoxblox]

Of course Bay is intimating that Fox says stupid things because her viewpoint is damaging to the earning potential of his latest release. Just because he doesn't like it doesn't mean she's unintelligent.

Ad hominem anyone?

[pizzmoe]

I don't know much about her or this whole situation, but if she dissed Michael Bay, count me in as a Megan Fox fan.

[TJinSoCal]

I thought her statements about Michael Bay were pretty tame and, if anything, tactful. I mean the Transformers movies had great special effects, but that's the only positive thing I can say about them. (Won't even get into the whole Car Car Binks thing, or the giant Decepticon testicles...) The dialogue could have been written by a teenage fanboy.

And look how he turned John Turturro, an actual actor, into a total irritation. "Criminals are hot!"

And he uses actresses in his movies like soft-core porn props. Did you notice that every girl in Transformers 2, especially in the college campus scenes, was hot? And Megan Fox's opening scene when she's airbrushing a gas tank while straddling the motorcycle looking like a stripper?? WTF?

So I have to agree that Fox is getting a bad rap here. And Michael Bay creates the movie equivalent of cotton candy: looks good, but has little flavor and no substance.

[Gwen R]

Agree. You just said everything I would have said. Maybe Megan Fox is tired of being told she can't act. She's essentially saying, "In Transformers, my job was to 'pout and pose', Michael Bay told me not to act because crying makes people look fat."

(fat joke courtesy of the great Pete Lee)