Megan Fox built a career off playing the "hot mean girl" in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and Jennifer's Body, but she's definitely more than her looks.
Like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and more who were victims to the pervading misogyny of the early oughts, Fox is now being viewed in a new light drastically different than decades ago. The 35-year-old addressed people underestimating her in a new Washington Post article.
"I think there has been a pervasive perception of me as a shallow succubus, if that makes any sense, for at least the first decade of my career," she explained. "And then that started to change more recently as people revisited my interviews, listened to me speak and started to see me in a different way."
The way in which people viewed Fox definitely got to her.
"I was so lost and trying to understand, like, how am I supposed to feel value or find purpose in this horrendous, patriarchal, misogynistic hell that was Hollywood at the time," she wondered. "Because I had already been speaking out against it and everyone, including other women, received me in a very negative way for doing it."
Because people just regarded her as someone who was attractive, Fox said, "I was never really established as having been talented."
She felt a shift when she played her New Girl character Reagan.
"People were surprised that I was funny at all," she remarked. "More than being overlooked for my ability to handle comedy sometimes, I've always been surprised by how easy it was for people to overlook that I'm relatively intelligent."
She continued, "I was like, how does that get so lost when there's ridiculous amounts of material that can educate you otherwise?"
The Transformers actress previously opened up about how she began to internalize the criticism she received in an interview with Refinery29.
As she told the outlet, "You're speaking words over real people, who are permeable, who have hearts. Your negativity can influence them. Especially the sensitive ones! I'll call myself one of them. We're the ones who are influenced by your negativity because we're so open. I'm not closed off. Those things affect me really deeply."