Megan Fox's Regret About Her Time As A Transformers Star

Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is a mixed bag for most viewers. Some loved his modern take on the classic characters, while others felt he did a major disservice to them. Regardless, they raked in over $4 billion at the worldwide box office and bumped up sales numbers for Hasbro's plastic robots in disguise. Even with resounding success like that, working on the film series wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for everyone involved.

Megan Fox is one such star. Fox got her big break in Hollywood through her Transformers franchise role as Mikaela Banes — the quick-witted, capable mechanic and love interest of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who helped him and the Autobots defeat the alien forces that threatened Earth. Her role was pivotal in the first two of Bay's five movies — 2007's Transformers and 2009's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — but then she mysteriously vanished from subsequent installments.

Since then, the movie series has produced three new main entries (2011's Dark of the Moon, 2014's Age of Extinction, and 2017's The Last Knight) and a spin-off (2018's Bumblebee) — and a lot has come to light about what it was like on the Transformers set in the early days of the franchise. One of the most vocal of all the cast and crew members is Fox, who's made no bones about the fact that her time working on the first two Transformers films was no walk in the park. Here's the regret Fox has about her days as a Transformers star, and how it turned into a huge learning experience for her.

To most accurately manifest their vision, a lot of directors employ unique tactics to keep their production in line and ensure maximum efficiency during a shoot. Bay has a reputation for his intense and often frightening directorial style, which reportedly results in a lot of yelling, demonstration, and strict direction that keeps both the cast and crew on their toes. Even though the best of intentions are in mind, Bay can apparently create an environment that's markedly tense and uncomfortable — which Fox infamously detailed (in a not-so-flattering manner) to Wonderland Magazine back in 2009.

"He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation," Fox said of Bay, whose penchant for "Bayhem" is common industry knowledge these days. She went on to say that he "wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," and that he's "a nightmare to work for." 

According to Bay, encouragement from Transformers franchise executive producer Steven Spielberg motivated him to fire Fox from the film series because of her comments comparing him to Hitler.

At the time of her controversial claims, Fox was a rising star in the film industry. She was young but relatively inexperienced when she began Transformers, and the way she saw it, she felt she outgrew the franchise by the second movie. However, Fox later admitted that while she stood by her comments back in 2009, she doesn't now — and recognizes that her own stubbornness stopped her from ever being a part of Transformers again. As Fox told Cosmopolitan UK in 2017, her own ego got in the way of her return to the universe: "All I had to do was apologize, and I refused. I was so self-righteous at 23, I couldn't see [that] it was for the greater good. I really thought I was Joan of Arc."

Fox, now 34, looks back on her release from the Transformers films as a learning experience. She referred to the incident as "absolutely the low point" of her career, but also noted that without everything happening the way it did, she "wouldn't have learned as quickly as [she] did" about the importance of a sincere apology especially when so many people are involved with the situation.

"It hurt me and a lot of other people. However, that darkness that descended caused enormous and brisk spiritual growth," said Fox. "Once I realized I [had] brought it on myself, it was an invaluable learning experience, looking back on it."

Despite her harsh comments toward the director, Fox and Bay have since reconciled — even working together on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films he produced. Fox may not have had a blast playing Mikaela in Transformers, but her age and maturity turned the negatives into something of a positive.