Megan Fox’s brutal preparation for 2009 horror-comedy Jennifer’s Body saw her hair fall out, with the star saying she felt like she ‘turned into a zombie’.
Fox, 36, starred in the cult film as Jennifer Check, a popular cheerleader who gains an appetite – literally – for her male classmates after becoming possessed by a demon.
Before starring in the movie, Fox rose to fame in 2007’s Transformers alongside Shia LaBeouf, playing love interest Mikaela Banes.
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But while the film was a huge success that would prove to be her breakout gig, afterwards she found she was ‘angry’ about needing to ‘look attractive’ for work – so much so, that she ended up going in the opposite direction, dressing in ‘giant oversized clothes and skate shoes’.
Speaking to GQ back in 2009 while promoting Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, she said: “I was not taking care of myself, smoking two packs a day.”
But then she went ‘in the other direction’ again, adding: “I turned into a zombie. I lost, like, 30lbs."
This was when Fox was preparing for Jennifer’s Body, which was written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody as her follow-up to 2007 hit Juno.
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While she was preparing for the role, Fox realised that her physical health was starting to suffer.
"I was like, 'I'm losing weight for the movie', she continued.
"I was telling myself I was being Method, which was so outrageous and ridiculous and not true.
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“But I ended up getting sick and my hair started falling out and I was like, 'Oh, f**k. I can't do this'."
Speaking specifically about her hair loss, Fox added: “You lose too much weight, you're not getting your vitamins, you get sick. I was really skinny. I was depressed."
In a 2021 interview with Who What Wear, she admitted she has struggled to deal with fame and fashion throughout her career, saying people kept trying to make her look a certain way.
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When faced with a photo of her at an event in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, she says it encapsulated a time when she was 'famous and not happy about it.'
"I got invited to some weird LA fashion show," she explained. "And I did not care. I was famous and not happy about it.
"I was battling my own demons psychologically. I wasn't really worried about fashion at that moment."
Later in the interview, Fox was critical of how the fashion and film industries tried to dictate how she looked during her first few years in the limelight, saying that 'everyone wanted (her) to look a certain way.'
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"Everyone wanted me to look like a movie star so that I could land this role," she said when asked about her role in Jennifer's Body.
"I resent people trying to tell me how to look, or act, or speak. I'm much better at it now.
"But at this point, if you tried to push me in a certain direction, I would go the opposite way."
Praising the work of stylist and regular collaborator Maeve Reilly, she said: "She has a really good eye, and I like the fact she's not afraid. She's not trying to hide me.
"People were trying to hide me and make me less sexy so that I could be taken more seriously. I just want to look right."
Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Megan Fox
Jess Hardiman