Megan Fox is expanding on her body-image struggles in a new interview.
During a filmed conversation with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2023, the actor got real about her ongoing struggles with body dysmorphia, a disorder that causes the affected person to overemphasize perceived defects about their body, affecting their mental health and self-image. “I don’t ever see myself the way other people see me,” Fox said. “There’s never a point in my life where I loved my body—never, ever.”
“When I was little, that was an obsession I had of, like, ‘But I should look this way,’” the actor continued. “And why I had an awareness of my body that young I’m not sure, and it definitely wasn’t environmental because I grew up in a very religious environment where bodies weren’t even acknowledged.”
She added, “The journey of loving myself is going to be never-ending, I think.”
Fox first revealed that she struggled with the disorder in October 2021, during an interview with British GQ Style. “We may look at somebody and think, That person’s so beautiful. Their life must be so easy,” she said at the time. “They most likely don’t feel that way about themselves.”
The actor has been vocal about her over-sexualization in Hollywood and how it has affected her mental health. In 2019, she told Entertainment Tonight she had suffered a “psychological breakdown” following the 2009 release of her film Jennifer’s Body, due to the overt sexualization of her public image. “It wasn’t just that movie, it was every day of my life, all the time, with every project I worked on and every producer I worked with,” Fox said.
“I didn’t want to be seen, I didn’t want to have to take a photo, do a magazine, walk a carpet,” she said. “I didn’t want to be seen in public at all because the fear—and the belief, and the absolute certainty—that I was going to be mocked, or spat at, or someone was going to yell at me, or people would stone me or savage me for just being out … so I went through a very dark moment after that.”
Sabrina Park is a Digital Fellow at HarpersBAZAAR.com where she covers news, fashion, and culture stories. When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok.
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