LOS ANGELES: Actor Megan Fox says her image in the media following her role of glamorous Mikaela Banes in the "Transformers" franchise had a catastrophic effect on her 2009 movie "Jennifer's Body".
The horror-comedy, written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, featured Fox as a demonically possessed high school girl who kills her male classmates.
During her appearance on "Eli Roth's History of Horror: Uncut" podcast, the actor referenced to her "fall-out" with the "Transformers" makers, saying that it had a negative impact on "Jennifer's Body".
"I was being vilified a little bit when the movie was getting ready for its release, it was that interesting juxtaposition to shooting up to extreme heights of fame right before the movie was released and then the tearing me down was starting to happen. Then I had this immediate fallout with someone I worked in the industry.
"That happened right when I was on the press tour for 'Jennifer's Body' I think it all sort of exploded at once. I think people definitely viewed me as negative or having bad intentions or just being really shallow and selfish if it could be reduced and simplified even to that," Fox said.
The actor said the film never "stood a chance" mainly because of her "image" at the time.
"All these people put in a lot of hard work into making a really quality project that was panned for reasons that had nothing to do with them," she said.
"A lot of it was just about my image at the time and who I was in the media at the time and the backlash to that. The movie never really stood a chance," Fox added.
The actor, who found global fame with Bay's two "Transformers" movies, was fired from the franchise after she compared the director with German dictator Adolf Hitler.
It is rumored that veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who served as an executive producer on the franchise, was upset with Fox's comment and had forced her to leave the series.
Now after so many years, the actor is happy that "Jennifer's Body" is regarded as a feminist piece of art and that so many girls are able to relate its core story.
"I think somewhere inside of every girl they can relate to this idea of feeling like 'My power has been taken away from me and what would I do if I got all of that power and then some back'.
"I imagine that's one of the things that they relate to: That vicarious letting lose, what's referred to in our hippie circles as 'the inner wild woman', the inner wild witch' that we all have. That is an archetype," Fox said.