Michael Bay clarifies ‘false’ claims in response to Megan Fox controversy

Transformers director praised ‘wonderful’ actor after she defended him following criticism

Michael Bay has praised Megan Fox for clarifying controversial comments she made about working with the director when she was 15.

In 2009, Fox told Jimmy Kimmel that the director made her “dance underneath a waterfall” in a bikini for the film Bad Boys II.

The video resurfaced on Twitter, and was shared with the comment: “Clip from 2009 where Megan Fox tells a story about Michael Bay sexualising her as a 15 y/o. The crowd laughs, and Kimmel makes gross jokes. Teen girls being preyed on by older men has never been taken seriously and still isn’t.”

However, Fox responded to the outrage, saying that she “was never assaulted or preyed upon” sexually.

Addressing her past comments, Fox wrote on Instagram: “While I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support, I do feel I need to clarify some of the details as they have been lost in the retelling of the events and cast a sinister shadow that doesn’t really, in my opinion, belong. At least not where it’s currently being projected...”

She said the “specific instances” were ”inconsequential in a long and arduous journey along [in] which I have endured some genuinely harrowing experiences in a ruthlessly misogynistic industry”.

Bay shared the post on his own Instagram page, and posted a still from her Transformers audition tape from 2007.

He wrote: “No. She is not washing a car nor in a bikini like the press have falsely said for many years. And I personally think Megan is fantastic.”

Bay said he is “proud to have worked” with Fox and that he plans to collaborate with her again on a future project.