Megan Fox Didn’t Speak Out For #MeToo Because She Didn’t Think She’d Be a Sympathetic Face

Megan Fox spoke with the New York Times about the #MeToo movement and why she hasn’t spoken out to lend her voice to the campaign. Fox, who was promoting her new Travel Channel series Legends of the Lost, told the site that she didn’t believe based on how she has been previously received for speaking out that she would be seen as a “sympathetic” voice.

Fox has previously spoken out about the harassment she endured on films, including an infamous 2009 interview where she talked about Michael Bay responding to her request for direction by saying, “Just be sexy” and saying that Bay “wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is.” That interview got her labeled as difficult to work with, and she was dropped from Transformers: Dark of the Moon as a result.

“I don’t know that I want to feel anything about it because my words were taken and used against me in a way that was — at that time in my life, at that age and dealing with that level of fame — really painful,” she told the Times. “I don’t want to say this about myself, but let’s say that I was ahead of my time and so people weren’t able to understand. Instead, I was rejected because of qualities that are now being praised in other women coming forward. And because of my experience, I feel it’s likely that I will always be just out of the collective understanding…I don’t know if there will ever be a time where I’m considered normal or relatable or likable.”

She added, “Even with the #MeToo movement, and everyone coming out with stories — and one could assume that I probably have quite a few stories, and I do — I didn’t speak out for many reasons. I just didn’t think based on how I’d been received by people, and by feminists, that I would be a sympathetic victim,” Fox said. “And I thought if ever there were a time where the world would agree that it’s appropriate to victim-shame someone, it would be when I come forward with my story.”

When asked if she would like to say anything now, Fox replied, “No, because I also feel like I’m not the universal hammer of justice. This is not to say that other people shouldn’t do what they feel is right. But in my circumstance, I don’t feel it’s my job to punish someone because they did something bad to me.”