“We live in a culture where it’s a game to be the most hateful to get the most attention.”

So, people have recently been re-examining Megan Fox’s career with 2020 vision — from a resurfaced clip where Megan talks about appearing in a Michael Bay movie in a bikini under a waterfall at age 15 to audience laughs, to analysis of the marketing misfire and hyper criticism of Megan’s starring role in Jennifer’s Body.

Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images
Well, Megan herself just got super candid about the scrutiny and the post–Michael Bay backlash she faced in the ’00s in an interview with Refinery29.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

The interview comes ahead of Fox’s upcoming action film Rogue, which is directed by M.J. Bassett. “[I wanted] to make Megan credible, rather than this sex object that’s she so frequently used for by male filmmakers,” M.J. said about the movie.

“Why did I live for a decade thinking that I was shit at something, when I was actually pretty decent at it?” she began. “That led to this realization that I’d been in a self-imposed prison for so much of my life.”

20th Century Fox

When asked about the new takes on her career, she continued, “Of course I look back and think — it would have been nice if any of you had seen this at that time that there was a bandwagon of absolute toxicity being spewed at me for years. But, I appreciate the reversal of it.”

Instagram: Megan Fox

“The culture is changing and society is changing, and a movie like [Rogue] now has a place to shine and be appreciated.”

The conversation also broached the topic of her now-infamous 2009 interview with Wonderland, where she referred to Michael Bay as “Hitler” and “a nightmare to work for.”

DreamWorks Pictures

She was fired from the Transformers series shortly after.

“The quote in its entirety, it was almost too flippant. Somehow, I would have been villainized in the telling of that story even today,” she remarked.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images

“I would have had to approach it and deliver it in a different way.”

More broadly, she said that she took in many of the mean and hateful things people said about her. “We have to be careful with our words — they’re powerful. That’s something I wish most people would understand. We live in a culture where it’s a game to be the most hateful to get the most attention. It’s not funny.”

Instagram: Megan Fox

“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.”