For two years, the entertainment community was focused on a seemingly unending war of attrition between two idiots. In one corner, we had Megan Fox, who at the time (circa 2009) couldn’t open her mouth without something stupid/crazy/offensive/try-hard falling out. In the other corner, we had Michael Bay, a sexist pig who auditions young actresses by making them wash his Ferrari while he films them. After Megan compared Bay to Napoleon and Adolf Hitler in an interview, Bay claims that Transformers producer Steven Spielberg hired him (Bay) to “fire” Megan. Bay later hired Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and the rest is bad-acting history.
Since she got shoved out of the Transformers franchise (or did she jump?), Megan Fox has slowly gotten a career mulligan. She started taking smaller parts in moderately-sized films. She’s been working with more established talents. She hasn’t been shooting off her mouth in interview after interview. It’s been better for her, and for everybody else. So I don’t know why Megan’s Friends With Kids costar, Chris O’Dowd, decided to revisit the Michael Bay issue. I think he’s defending Megan. But this doesn’t do her any favors:
Megan Fox and Transformers director Michael Bay have been in a war of words since 2009 — and though it may have cost the 25-year-old actress a few film roles, it’s also earned her the respect of Friends With Kids costar Chris O’Dowd.
“Who wouldn’t have a fallout with [Bay]?” O’Dowd, 32, tells The Toronto Sun. “It’s one of the sexist things I’ve ever seen. She called him an a–hole. Well, he is a f-cking a–hole. She’s not the only one who has said that. Why has she been singled out?”
For those who have forgotten, Fox once compared Bay to Adolf Hitler on set. After Bay got wind of her comment, producer Steven Spielberg reportedly told him: “Fire her right now.”
Though O’Dowd has never worked with Bay, 47, he knows Fox hasn’t had an easy time since she was dropped from the Transformers franchise.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but it’s all down to having a fallout with Michael Bay,” O’Dowd said. “I would never f-cking watch his films, never mind go and act in them.”
[From Us Weekly]
I went to the source article, but they don’t say whether Chris was asked about Megan and Michael Bay, or whether he was just shooting off his mouth, much like Megan used to do. I don’t know. I mean, I’ll give him some props for blasting Michael Bay for sexism (which is true), but it’s not like Chris O’Dowd is up for parts in Bay’s films anyway, you know? It would be like me saying, “God, Joan Didion is such a d-bag. I would NEVER work with her.” Like Joan Didion would EVER work with me, you know? Bad example. Besides all that – it’s just a matter of professionalism. An actor just doesn’t refer to his or her director as “Hitler”. And an adult man in his 40s shouldn’t get into a public war of words with his very young starlet, who is clearly an idiot. They both acted like a–holes. Can’t that be the end of it?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
Yeah, I agree…the statement just came out of left field, it seemed strange to come out and say that now.
If Fox were Jewish, making the Hitler comment, would the controversy have been this huge? Hitler represents the vilest oppression for any culture who fell under his power. If you specialize Hitler’s evil to one, you give him a pass on all his other evils. Opinion should not be divided by scapegoating a gentile who used the reference to express her point of view. It’s surprising of Hollywood to be in the business of dictating freedom of expression. Just saying.
I didn’t think her reference to Hitler was anything more than calling him a dictator. People were too quick to judge her. Michael Bay is a d-bag. She called him on it. He didn’t like that. The whole thing escalated. Chris O’Dowd seems like a nice guy. I prefer to think he was asked about working with her or what he thought about the MB issue.
I agree. Both Michael Bay and Shia LeBeouf pretty much called her an idiot for having issues with just being a hot face and T & A.
I’m sure at casting nobody told her that she’d just be there to be hot. I’m sure she was told it would be marketed to kids and maybe she thought it would be more of an Angelina Jolie-type action hero role.
They really could just cast any pr0n-y actress, since there are tons in Hollywood who think directors like Michael Bay are what most men are like and accept it.
She’s no brainiac, but I can see how she was pulled between making money on the movie and having a lead role in a popular movie with being stymied by a director who would spend 50 minutes on scenes she was in telling her to arch her back more and lower her shoulders and lick her lips, and spend time instructing the makeup team to make her cleavage stand out more, and not say two words to her. That can be pretty humiliating when the director is pretty much directing you like you’re his blow-up doll or pr0n actress.
The Toronto Sun is a rag. It is basically a tabloid that masks itself as a newspaper and it wouldn’t surprise me if they brought the topic up to him, they aren’t exactly with the times.
Very true. Fit for the fireplace, that’s all it is.
i don’t even know who this guy is but i approve. michael bay is rewarded for being a pig. it is far worse than regular folks will ever know. he’s what ^asli^ said @ terry -shudder- richardson. disgusting.
yeah, megan’s dumb as rocks. she said the wrong word and was punished according to hollywood standards and practices. she should have just said bay is a limp unendowed troll that uses his position to get action and left it at that.
joan didion is awful. i thought i was the only one.
Yes, but I still side with Megan on this. If every single pretty new face on the block never says a word about unprofessionalism of Bay magnitude this world will be hell in no time.
Still, the choice of words…oh, Megan.
Bay may be a sexist a**hole, but if young actresses weren’t so willing to “wash his Ferrari” 😉 for a role and instead demanded to be judged on their acting talent then he couldn’t get away with that behaviour.
Making a stand once you’ve already got the job and have been catapulted into fame doesn’t exactly scream “feminism campaigner” and it’s not like MF is fighting her disposable eye candy image in the The Dictator trailer, now is she?
There are literally tens of thousands of young women trying to be actresses in Hollywood. If Megan Fox — or if a thousand Megan Foxes — had demanded to be judged on their acting talent, Michael Bay would have laughed at every one of them and kept looking until he found someone who felt trapped and desperate enough to do whatever he demanded to get the part.
It’s extremely clear who held all of the power in this situation. That doesn’t mean that she couldn’t have walked away, but he never should have forced her to decide between turning down her big break and playing out his gross little fantasy. Megan chose her words badly, but the underlying sentiment was totally right — he’s the one who deserves to be called out.
How about we blame the d-bag instead of the victim? Yes, it may have been a poor choice on her part to do what he asked, but if you are a hungry young actress and you know this is the only way you will get the part, you do it because if you don’t, someone else will. So let’s focus on the person who made the incredibly sexist request instead. He bears 100% responsibility.
Unfortunately, we still live in a sexist society – especially in HW. So for every one actress that has the cajones to say ‘f*ck off’, there are 100 more that are willing to dive onto the casting couch. It’s sad but true. Only by having people like Megan highlight the issues, someone who actually had gone through it with not much to lose, will there be change. We need someone like Tina Fey to call them out on it. Fey for president!
LOL @ you thinking just saying NO to him would make him change his sexist ways. He is the problem. Nothing any actress is doing, or not doing, has him the way he is. He should never put someone in a position to chose btwn giving him a blow job or not getting the part. How exactly is that fair? Surely he doesn’t ask his male actors to do the same. So, why should the men be judge solely on their talent but when it comes to the women it’s who is willing to give him a blow job?
I think Megan is an idiot and chose the world words to use. But, even though I don’t agree with how she did it, I agree w/what she did.
I think it’s good that she has someone defending her against Michael, who went too hard. He literally tried to end this girl, who is so low on the food chain, just because she didn’t worship him or put up with his bizarre antics.
“Michael Bay is a d-bag. He gives me the Terry Richardson-vibe.”
I am going to co-sign on that statement. Bay is a creepy ass perv. Who has been able to treat young actresses like crap for his pleasure.
Unfortunately, Bay is not the only male, in a position of power, who does this.
It is completely acceptable behavior to treat a actress like a whore.
By dangling a job in front of her… that would make her a career.
Then demand her to do ghastly things in order to get that job.
I am also thrilled that Megan spoke out against him. Cause you know he demanded some weird shit from her. That she obviously did not do. And he got even with her.
Agreed completely. And that is why I will NEVER go see a film by Michael Bay or Brett Ratner. They skeeve me out so so much and they are both clearly juvenile misogynists who never grew out a the frat boy personas they so obviously cultivated after being excluded by the very douche-bags they emulate. It’s not cute when the dudes are 19 and it’s downright revolting when they’re 45. The fact that Victoria’s Secret continues to hire Bay to make their super bowl ads makes me glad I don’t shop there either.
And while I’m no huge fan of Megan Fox, her speaking out about Bay is her primary redeeming quality in my eyes.
The Bloke from Boyle is right though.
And if she hadn’t invoked Godwin’s Law, MF would have been right about Bay having a Napoleon Complex. It would have had more clout if she had told him to ram his Ferrari up his wotsit, sideways, instead of “auditioning”, but you can’t have everything.
As an aside, I watched “Bridesmaids” over the weekend, and O’Dowd was the best thing about it. Shame he didn’t ask anyone if they “tried switching it off and on again?” 😆
I’m really only commenting because I love Chris O’Dowd (IT Crowd!) and want more stories on him. About the topic at hand, I don’t really have an opinion. I didn’t follow it at the time, so caring about it now seems…hard.
I am on Team Fox on this. She was a teenager when he had her do that car wash audition. Just eek.
While I agree that this was kind of out of the blue and maybe not terribly professional, I can get on board with anyone calling out Bay for his crappy movies and even crappier personality.
Same here. I’ll side with anyone who is against Michael Bay (unless it’s someone who manages to be worse than him).
Speaking of nasty, sexist directors, when I read this blind riddle originally posted on Laineygossip, guess who I thought was the answer?
http://laineygossip.com/Articles/Category/1057/Details/22739/Thin-For-Nothing-blind-riddle
P.S.: When I first posted the link here, some fellow celebitches guessed Ashley Greene as the girl.
Yes, as much as I dislike Megan Fox, I am in her corner on this one. Bay is well-known to be a flaming sexist asshole, and Fox was treated in the way that women are treated in H’wood when they call out powerful men on their bad behavior. She probably did what she did without appreciation for the consequences, but the way shit went down was very instructive about how women are still viewed and handled by TPTB in the big studios. Fox is a dreadful actress, but I’m glad she’s getting a career reboot PURELY because I was so disgusted by how she was treated after this incident, and how it contrasted with the treatment bratty young male d-bag stars get. Otherwise I’d have been happy to see her fade into oblivion.
” but the way shit went down was very instructive about how women are still viewed and handled by TPTB in the big studios. ”
YEP!! And everybody just let it happen instead of taking a step back and going ‘hmmm, maybe this isn’t okay…” And I applaud Chris for risking his own career and calling him out on it. Although, it would have been better coming from someone bigger who had more clout. And since he’s never worked with him it sounds like he’s attacking Bay over hearsay but shooooot, we all know his a piece of shit.
@ Loulou: I’ve heard Jewish people say things like that too, and seen gentiles get offended. I don’t expect much better from Megan Fox, she isn’t where she is now because of her intellect, but it’s a stupid, offensive thing to say. That being said, I think it’s awesome that Chris O’Dowd backed her up and called Michael Bay an asshole, and I sincerely doubt he will experience any fallout from it, because he’s successful and he’s a guy.
I lovelovelove that he backed her up on this. Michael Bay being called out on his horrible attitude towards women can only ever be a good thing as far as I am concerned.
What’s a Transformer? Nevermind, I’ll just consult the OED.
@Asli
Agreed.
It was a shame that she was attacked from all sides for speaking out against him. He demeaned her, she bit back. Good for her. I’m glad someone is publicly defending her.
It’s funny how Bay used the old ‘Hitler’ story to promote TF 3, and now this O’Dowd uses it to promote FWK. They aren’t different. At the end of the day they are all friends probably. Hollywood…
Thank you for not falling for it 😉
He’s right- we should 100% support what she said! Why is a notorious sexist like Bay allowed to make his awful films?
I’m with Megan Fox on this one, and I’m glad someone defended her comments. I’m sure Michael Bay is a sexist pervert & he probably wanted a lil something something frm her…and she said no!
As right as Chris is (and as much as I adore him) I really wish he hadn’t said anything about it. Why bring all that crap up again (whether he was asked about it or not). Does that film they are both starring in really need more publicity or something?
Oh, and I just fell a little more in love with Chris O’Dowd. I am no friend of Fox but Michael Bay is a, a,…..even calling him a sexist douchetard pig doesn’t really do him justice. He’s even worse than that, so while perhaps it wasn’t politic for Fox to call him a nazi (and that’s not even the right analogy for him) at least someone is willing to call a douche a douche. I won’t spend money on a Bay film ever again; I’ve read too much disgusting things about him on gossip blogs and I believe every single one.
Not surprised Spielberg acts like this. Have to see a movie of his yet where the main character is female.
Did you see “The Color Purple”?
I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to his family at the passing of a great person who’s passing I will miss, in memorial I am putting one of his engines in my 1967 442, I just wish I could have had him sign it!