While speaking with the Los Angeles Times recently, Shia Labeouf tried his best to explain why Megan Fox didn’t fit in on Michael Bay’s set.
Huntington-Whiteley is equipped for Bay’s brusque shooting style in a way that Fox was not, according to LaBeouf.
Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman-empowerment [stuff] that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael, who some people think is a very lascivious filmmaker, the way he films women,” LaBeouf said. “Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality. It’s summer. It’s Michael’s style. And I think [Fox] never got comfortable with it. This is a girl who was taken from complete obscurity and placed in a sex-driven role in front of the whole world and told she was the sexiest woman in America. And she had a hard time accepting it. When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk. We’re on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact. There’s no time for [LaBeouf assumes a gentle voice] ‘I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.
Huntington-Whiteley, on the other hand, must have arched her back just right when Bay shot her in a Victoria’s Secret ad in 2009, because months after Fox’s trash-talking peaked, the director cut the actress’ character, Mikaela Banes, from the third “Transformers” movie and replaced her with the newcomer.
Rosie comes with this Victoria’s Secret background, and she’s comfortable with it, so she can get down with Mike’s way of working and it makes the whole set vibe very different.
It’s not just the set environment that changed when Huntington-Whiteley arrived, LaBeouf said, but the relationship between his character, Sam Witwicky, and his lady. In “Dark of the Moon,” a Cybertronian spacecraft has been discovered on the moon and the alien robots are stirring. Sam, who fought beside the good-guy Autobots in two wars with the Decepticons, has graduated from college, only to face a breakup with Mikaela and an economy with 10% unemployment.
Sam’s sort of frustrated. He has no purpose in life. When he was with the Autobots, he had purpose. He was needed. But he’s got this very supportive girl [Huntington-Whitley's Carly Miller] who’s having him go to these job interviews and trying to nurture him, get him back on his feet. It’s a different female energy than he experienced with Mikaela, who was a very cold biker chick. This woman’s more of a maternal, loving type. Sam wants a domestic, eggs-in-the-morning kind of a thing,
LaBeouf said.
