SSC Film Studies

Megan Fox Case Study

Megan Fox is considered to be 'the sexiest woman in the world' according to the millions of votes she gained through this online competition of attractiveness that she is drawn into in her career. If you go to see Transformers, you will see Megan Fox as a construct. According to Fox, "Really, my only job is to look attractive." (IMDB) She is aware of her construct when represented in films and movie posters, but when interviewed we can see that our image of Fox is not an accurate representation of her as a person. But she builds her own construct as a star, making herself seem intelligent and innocent. These constructs hide her identity, as she wants people to believe that she is intelligent. We never see Fox reading a book, but she has a quote from William Shakespeare's "King Lear" on her right shoulder. She does not provide evidence other than things constructed to make it look true. We see her as very promiscuous, wearing revealing clothing, but she has apparently "only had two boyfriends."

Her "star qualities" would be her 'sexiest woman' label, the representation of her being the 'ideal woman' and her being the favourite female sidekick. She mostly stars in action films, where her audience can see her in action. Her target audience is young men, and even older men as a wider audience. In her films, she appeals to them by being represented as promiscuous but she has stated that "People assume I'm really promiscuous... I've only had two boyfriends." but through the media we see this as very hard to believe because we see her as the sexual female symbol in film. In the media she is still viewed as her trademarks represent her, according to IMDB her trademarks are her "seductive voice", "long, brown hair" and her "many tattoos". Star qualities are an indicator of what audiences can expect, and Megan Fox is expected to be this promiscuous, attractive character.

 Her films would be less successful if she were to work within a different genre such as family films or fantasy, because the audience wants to see Megan Fox in action films such as Transformers therefore their expectations need to be met. By playing the same role repeatedly, she creates expectations in her audience which they find appealing which studios can use to draw audiences to the cinema. In Transformers (2007) Megan Fox plays 'Mikaela Banes', an attractive woman who loves cars and wears in one scene, "a sleeveless midriff top, a short denim skirt, blackish-red coloured closed toed wedge shoes, and is gleaming from perspiration." (Source: transformers.wikia.com) The short clothes and "blackish-red" colour make her look more like Megan Fox, rather than a human being. 

According to Sandie Angulo Chen in her film review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, audiences are "likely to be disappointed to discover that the talking Turtles have been reduced to sidekicks to the actual focus of this film: summer-movie sexpot Megan Fox." A lot of critics in the media see her very negatively, suggesting that she has no real importance in her films other than to draw in a wider male audience. She is known for the large blockbuster franchise Transformers and now she has made another franchise movie, TMNT, which suggests that most of her fame comes from fans of large franchises and fans of promiscuous women. 

It has been said that we like stars to be in between 'the ordinary and the extraordinary'. Megan Fox tends to represent herself as the ordinary, but the media projects her image of promiscuity. But there are very few examples of deviant behaviour from Fox, on mostly all sources it states that she has only had 2-4 boyfriends which contradicts the way the media present her. But although she represents herself in a positive way, producers will always use her in similar roles which give audiences what they want and I believe that the negative to this will be that someday she will not be as young and attractive, so she amongst many other stars will be replaced. 

Stars are also being replaced due to franchises hiring unique, new actors to become their characters, rather than their characters to become the star. Megan Fox's Net Worth is only $5 million, which is a lot less than major household names such as DiCaprio or Cruise. Fox does not serve any ideological values in her films, but her performance can have a negative effect on some female viewers, making them assume that her portrayal of the 'ideal woman' is the correct one.

In her reality, she is a wife and a mother, but her roles never match this category as if she is living a double life. People forget that the actor is acting, and we sometimes see Fox as her characters, rather than a wife, or a mother. Herself as a parent can be judged by many people as her role as the young, sexually attractive character in many films, which people assume she is like in real life due to their expectations of her.