Megan Fox turned down the role of Lara Croft for a very particular reason.
In recent years it seems that Megan Fox is in the news for her life outside of work rather than for the roles she gets as an actress. Fox has even been criticized for her comments about her own appearance and for perpetuating unattainable beauty standards.
In an old Instagram post, for example, she claimed that she never exercised. "I don't exercise. If God wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor," she said, quoting the famous comedian Joan Rivers.
The actress got engaged to rapper Machine Gun Kelly in January 2022, but fans have often expressed concern about how unhealthy that relationship often seems.
Even in her work as an actress, controversy seems to reach Fox. After playing the character Mikaela Banes in the first two Transformers films, she made comments comparing director Michael Bay to Hitler and was fired from the franchise.
The reason why Megan Fox rejected the role of Lara Croft
When her departure from the Transformers saga was confirmed, Fox rejected an offer to play Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot. Fox has earned a reputation for speaking her mind and making bold decisions in her career. One of those decisions included turning down the opportunity to play her iconic character. The actress was offered the role when the Tomb Raider reboot was in development in the early 2010s.
However, Fox passed up the opportunity blaming creative differences with the filmmakers as the main reason for it. The character was originally played by Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and in the sequel Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003).
Following Fox's decision to turn down the role, the Tomb Raider reboot finally premiered in 2018 with actress Alicia Vikander in the lead role. The film was a box office success and received positive reviews.
According to Fox, she turned down the role because she wanted to avoid being compared to Angelina Jolie. "The offer has been on the table for Megan for a while, but she reluctantly turned it down," a source close to the actress told Showbiz Spy in 2010. "She is the logical choice to play Lara and she loves the character, but the comparison with Angelina is too much," added the same source.
Fox has stated on several occasions that she does not want to be seen as a "poor man's Angelina Jolie" and she expressed her desire to be recognized for her talents and abilities. However, because she is concerned about issues of this type, the Transformers actress has earned the nickname "problematic" and is seen less and less in movies and television.
