Megan Fox has such an incredible exposure in the media that it’s almost shocking that she can’t actually headline a movie and make it a hit. The two films she opened so far on her own bombed miserably – and were trashed by critics –, and it’s all because being a failure as an actress is part of the Megan Fox brand, industry insiders tell PopEater. Megan Fox is a brand the way Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are brands, the report argues.
Critics always pick on Megan for her inability to carry a movie into the realm of box office success: “Jennifer’s Body” was a flop and it looks like the same will also happen to “Jonah Hex,” which managed to underperform even by the most pessimistic estimates in its opening weekend. This is all part of the new type of celebrity brand: one that goes beyond achievements as a thespian right there into the territory where being a failure is a must. In other words, the Megan Fox brand means Fox has to look always stunning, say outrageous things in interviews and make films bomb – unless she’s featured in them in skimpy clothes and she does a lot of running (see “Transformers”).
“The conclusion industry observers have drawn: No one wants to see Fox in a movie unless she’s wearing short shorts and being chased by giant robots. If Megan Fox was determined to be a huge movie star or a top box-office draw, her career would be in big trouble. But movie acting is just her day job. Her full-time career is being Megan Fox. Being Megan Fox means establishing herself as a brand, not just an actress. She’s one of the new breed of stars for whom every public appearance and interview is part of the performance; the actual credits she accumulates on her IMDb page are just a small portion of her 24/7 workload. It’s a career of the sort pioneered by Madonna (who’s never been just a musician, but has always been in the Madonna business) and carried on these days by celebrities like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag. As long as personalities like Fox stay in the public eye (say, by being mentioned on sites like ours), they’re earning their keep,” PopEater writes.
“What are the specific job requirements for being Megan Fox? She has to keep her 15 minutes of fame going by A) looking hot; B) saying outrageous things in interviews; and C) looking hot. By those standards, she did exactly what was required of her for ‘Jonah Hex.’ During the shoot, she did A very well, since about all she was asked to do was show how well she could fill out a corset. And before the movie’s release, she promoted it by doing plenty of B and C. Nonetheless, ‘Jonah Hex’ remained an ill-conceived, watered-down version of an obscure comic book in a tough-sell genre (westerns) with a leading man who has also never successfully opened a picture. That it tanked can’t really be blamed on Fox,” the report goes on to say.
What this means actually, as paradoxical as it may sound, is that, at this point, Megan Fox has reached a stage where she’s too famous to be a successful actress, because she represents a new “breed” of celebrity. The good news for her, even if all the movies she makes from now on bomb, is that she will continue to get paid, just like Lindsay Lohan still is, despite the fact that no one in the industry wants to work with her anymore. The bad news for moviegoers is that, well, flops like “Jennifer’s Body” and “Jonah Hex” will continue to be made.
