Megan Fox spent years building up her image as an ice-cold sex goddess, but now finally has the chance to laugh at herself — and she couldn’t be more relieved.
In Sacha Baron Cohen’s new comedy film the beauty plays a stuck-up hooker who gets into a huff when she is paid with rubies rather than diamonds.
The character fumes: “What am I, a Kardashian?”.
It is just a cameo, but being able to get laughs out of her rather humour-free image is a joy for the Hollywood beauty.
Megan, 25, says: “When I first started acting I was always playing the bitchy or mean girl, then I was playing these cool, robotic women.
“I was growing tired of playing those kinds of characters and reinforcing this stereotype of me and having to play up to that when I was doing interviews.
“Now I feel I can be myself again. It’s given me the chance to get away from that sexy, icy image that I’ve been stuck with.
“I think the public can relate to me more easily in these kinds of movies.”
The actress also loved working with Baron Cohen — who plays deluded “supreme leader” Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen in The Dictator.
She says: “I had a wonderful time. Sacha is very smart and funny. We had a great time working together.
“I think audiences are going to love the film.”
Megan adds: “I’m discovering that I enjoy the atmosphere of being part of those kinds of films.
“Doing comedies has been a great change of pace for me and I’m interested to see how audiences react to seeing me in these kinds of films.
“I’m really enjoying my work again and I feel a lot of good things are happening to me.”
Such a feeling has been a long time coming.
Megan admits that she never enjoyed the years she felt obliged to play up to the serious, sex-vixen image.
Although she had modelled and acted since she was 15, she was hurtled into the global limelight when she won the role as Shia LaBeouf’s action sidekick Mikaela in Transformers in 2007.
She admits: “I just didn’t know how to handle the attention or make that image work for me. I felt I was suddenly living a double life and I was expected to behave a certain way. I just couldn’t be like that.
“I have a hard time holding back what I really think. I don’t like the idea of censoring myself and not speaking my mind or being humorous when I’m doing interviews.
“I’ve paid the price for being very open about my feelings.”
Most spectacularly, her openness backfired when, in a magazine interview in 2009, she likened Tranformers director Michael Bay to Hitler.
She was immediately fired from the franchise by its executive producer, Steven Spielberg.
Then, to make matters worse, three anonymous crew members on the films then posted a letter online calling her “dumb as a rock” and slamming her behaviour on set.
When asked what she has learned from these kinds of lows, Megan says: “To not be so bold and outspoken when it 
comes to talking about certain things.
“I’m a passionate individual and sometimes when I have strong feelings about a subject I feel the need to express myself.
“But I’ve learnt that it’s better to hold back a bit, that the world doesn’t necessarily need or want to know what I think about some matters.
“I still believe in being very honest and speaking my mind. I think that’s a good quality even if sometimes it has gotten me into trouble.”
As well as the new comedy gig, Megan is also still modelling. She is the face of Armani and also regularly tops lists of the world’s hottest women.
But Megan reckons her red-blooded male fans have the wrong idea about her two best features.
She says with a grin: “I like my eyes the best. I love playing with different make-up styles for my eyes and seeing how I can make them stand out.
“As a young girl, I was always frustrated at not being able to steal my mom’s make-up because she never had any.
“So getting into modelling and acting has allowed me to fulfil all my make-up dreams.”
These days Megan is nearly as famous for her body art as for her body.
She has at least ten tattoos including designs on her ribs and shoulder.
But she is currently getting a portrait of Marilyn Monroe on her right forearm removed, claiming it causes “negativity”.
And the process has been painful.
Megan explains: “Removing the tattoo is a hundred times worse than getting the tattoo itself. I think it will come off really easily, though, and I’m not going to put something over it.
“I have the right skin type for removing it, so I think it will look fine. They tell you when you come in that the more fair your skin is, the easier it is to remove.
“I’ve got three or four more sessions left to go. Even though I still love Marilyn Monroe, I was just over having the tattoo of her. I got it when I was 18, and now I’m 25.”
A big part of that growing-up process has been her relationship with former Beverly Hills 90210 star Brian Austin Green.
The couple have been together for seven years and got married in 2010. She is reportedly now expecting his child — but both Megan and Brian refuse to comment on the rumours.
However, the actress is more than happy to gush about life as “mom” to young stepson Kassius – Brian’s son by 90210 actress Vanessa Marcil.
She says: “A lot of things make me happy. But I feel unbelievably happy when my nine-year-old stepson tells me I’m beautiful. Kassius is one of the most beautiful things about my life.
“When I started living with Brian, his son was only two and I was 18. But ever since I’ve felt like we’ve created this family together.
“I’ve basically been looking after Kassius since he was three and that’s part of my world that very few people really ever understood about me.
“I love being a stepmom and I feel that the experience grounds me when nothing else makes sense in my life.”
The other grounding influence is her religious faith.
Megan, who was brought up in a strict Pentecostal family in Tennessee, reveals: “I’ve always found it strange that different Christian groups can look at each other in an antagonistic way.
“I think all religions have common principles and an overriding faith in God, so I’ve tried to use religion in a non-restrictive, very open way.
“I go regularly to a church in Los Angeles which is very open and non-judgmental. There I meet a lot of other young people who are looking to share their faith and find common meaning with other people.
“Religion can be a beautiful thing.”
by Helena Bryanlith
