Megan Fox a special special effect in 'Transformers'

By BETSY PICKLE
Scripps Howard News Service

If anyone can make the robots in "Transformers" take a back seat, it's Megan Fox. The stunningly beautiful brunette turns out to be one of director Michael Bay's most special effects in the surefire summer hit.
Fox was working too hard on "Transformers" to notice how much camera time she was getting.
"I didn't really realize that that's what was happening while I was filming," she says. "I got more of an idea later on because I had worked, like, twice as many days as was in my contract.
"I was, like, 'Wow, they're getting a lot of footage of me. I wonder what that means?' I figured it out eventually, and once I saw the initial edit, like how much of me is actually in the movie, I sort of became overwhelmed at that point."
Judging by the number of Web sites boasting photos of Fox, it's no surprise Bay decided to make her the female lead. She's featured on the cover of Maxim's July issue. But Fox, 21, is serious about her acting.
Born in Rockwood, Tenn., Fox split her first 10 years between that town and Kingston. She started dancing at 5.
"I took it very seriously, and I was very competitive," she says.
She moved to Florida with her mother and older sister when she was 10 and did some catalog modeling there in her early teens.
"I told the agent that was representing me that, look, obviously, this is not what I want to do with my life. A) I'm too short, and B) I'm just not interested. I want to be an actor. And he actually hooked me up with my first manager."
Fox ended up in a direct-to-video movie with the Olsen twins, "Holiday in the Sun."
She tussled with Lindsay Lohan in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" before playing Faith Ford's daughter on the sitcom "Hope & Faith" for two seasons.
In "Transformers," she plays Mikaela, a tough-shelled beauty who joins Shia LaBeouf's Sam and the good Autobots to fight the evil Decepticons. She's supposed to be good at working on cars, but Fox says that's just acting.
"I don't know (anything) about fixing cars," she says.
She says she was intimidated by Bay from audition through production, but nothing was scarier than when he tried to help her with her research.
"Michael took me out at his office and wanted me to work on his Ferrari," she says. "He tried to teach me about cars. And he wanted to film me while I was doing it.
"I was really terrified because if I scratched it -- like, the button on my jeans scratched the paint -- he would never let me work in this town again."
Once "Transformers" comes out, Fox probably will have to face an even more daunting challenge: appearing at comic-book conventions. So far, she's been recognized by only one "Transformers" fan.
"I had one guy in a tattoo shop that was getting an Autobot symbol tattooed on him, and he lost it when I walked in," says Fox, whose own tattoo count is getting close to double digits. "I called (Shia), and it was, like, 'Wow, this movie's ... important.' "

(Contact Betsy Pickle of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)