Megan Fox: It's All an Act

Megan Fox isn’t really an out-of-control, stripper-seducing wild child—she just plays one in interviews. Hollywood’s current favorite sex symbol tells Lynn Hirschberg of the New York Times that she’s manufactured her own image, creating a character to play in the press because “I’m not willing to give my true self up.” Who is that true self? It's not the next Angelina—comparisons to Jolie are "the bane of my existence," she says—or Julia Roberts. "I’m 23. I don’t belong in a romantic comedy yet. Those movies are very safe."

Which may explain why in her next movie, Jonah Hex, she plays a prostitute, and yes, there's a sex scene. But as Hirschberg writes, the "real" Fox is more homebody than sex-bomb: an obsessive watcher of reality TV (she's hooked on gems like Say Yes to the Dress), a fan of spending Saturday nights at Red Lobster. And that's a problem. “You have to be put in a box in this industry so they can sell you. They need to get hits on their blogs or sell their magazines. And if I’m not a party girl, which I’m not, I then have to be the outrageous personality.” (More Megan Fox stories.)