During a special screening of the 2009 cult classic. Jennifer's body at the Academy Museum, star Megan Fox recalled her experiences with “ruthless” paparazzi and how the Karyn Kusama-led project provided her with catharsis at a time when she was “struggling a lot with fame.”
When asked if there was any advice she would give to her younger self, fresh from her breakout role in the Michael Bay film. Transformers — Fox described herself at the time as “so lost, so full of the rage I felt towards the way I was being treated in the industry,” according to People.
Misogynistic treatment from paparazzi was especially difficult to deal with, she said, sharing an anecdote about attending the premiere of a supernatural comedy-horror film. “I remember how the paparazzi were so ruthless back then – how they talked to women,” the actress recalled. “And I got out just to try to get to my car and they were all shooting. And one guy was like, “Megan, why are you such a bitch?” And the other guy was 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 this grief and sadness and anger and rage that needed a place to go,” adding that the film gave her “permission to be upset even between takes or maybe the entire time we were there, it was very cathartic for me.”
Able to embody “that dark feminine energy that no one really wants to allow,” Fox described how she “resonated” with the script and her character Jennifer, a popular high school student who undergoes a demonic transformation beyond her control after being sacrificed by a local indie rock band.
“There's something about it, whether it's perceived as just that or not, I felt like I was being persecuted at that point in my career and I was struggling a lot with fame and being traumatized by fame,” she said. “And so I resonated in these deeper layers…before she became a monster, she was just a teenage girl who was sacrificed for someone else's gain. And that resonated very strongly because that's how I came into this industry. I think I was 19 when I made my first big movie, and I felt like it reflected the energy that existed within me.”
She concluded: “[The film] was very healing for me, because at that time it was very difficult for me. And if I had been able to warn myself, or give myself advice, or have any rationale or clarity, I don’t think you would have gotten the result that you got.”
Fans of the dark comic bildungsroman know that there may be more to the Bildungsroman universe. Jennifer's bodyas Kusama confirmed to Deadline that writer Diablo Cody writes a sequel it's just as “fun and crazy” as the original hit.
Kusama also reflected on Fox's mistreatment by the media at the time, telling Deadline: “I think [comedy is] her secret weapon is that she's very, very funny, and obviously there's a deep intelligence behind that humor, and so she had both of those things, but she was clearly rejected, attacked, distrusted for some reason for not just staying in her place. And I feel like this role spoke to something in her that she must have already wanted to change a little, given how she had been treated in the press and by her professional peers up to that point. It must have been incredibly disappointing.”
Jennifer's body follows two polar opposite best friends, the outgoing Jennifer and the bookish Needy (Amanda Seyfried), whose friendship changes when the former goes on a murderous rampage against her male classmates. Johnny Simmons, JK Simmons, Amy Sedaris, Adam Brody, Kyle Gallner and Chris Pratt round out the cast.
