#CancelKimmel: Internet Apologises to Megan Fox as Old Interview on Being Sexualised at 15 Goes Viral

With the disturbing video of Hollywood actor Megan Fox being interviewed by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel back in 2009 resurfacing, social media is once again riven with debate regarding the inherent sexualisation and harassment of young women by older men in power.

In the interview, Fox can be seen recalling an incident from when she was 15-years-old and shooting as an extra on the sets of the Michael Bay-directed Bad Boys 2.

"I had just turned 15 and I was an extra in Bad Boys II. They were shooting this club scene and they brought me in, and I was wearing a Stars-and-Stripes Bikini and a red cowboy hat. And six-inch heels," Fox can be heard telling Kimmel.

"And he approved it, and they said, you know, 'Michael, she's 15, so you can't sit her at the bar and she can't have a drink in her hand.' So his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath a waterfall getting soaking wet," she added.

But while the incident itself was disturbing considering Fox was just 15 at the time it happened, what was more shocking was Kimmel's reaction. Instead of addressing the issue of Fox's sexualization by older and powerful men such as Michael Bay, who in later films has been accused of turning the young actress into a "sex symbol" to better market his films, Kimmel laughed and made further jokes about Fox.

When Fox said "At 15. I was in tenth grade. So that's a microcosm of how Bay's mind works," Kimmel responded, "Well that's really a microcosm of how all our minds work."

READ: Jimmy Kimmel, Michael Bay Get Flak Over Old Megan Fox Interview Recalling How She was Sexualized in Bad Boys II

The video has once again led to a conversation regarding the mental and sexual exploitation of women in Hollywood, a conversation that was first highlighted by the #MeToo movement in 2017 when several women including actress Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd coming forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.

The sexualisation of young women in the film and entertainment industry is a known secret and many on social media felt that the interview was just another example of how the industry itself propagated such misogynistic objectification of women in the name of entertaining film and TV.

Yet others called out Bay as well as Kimmel for normalising the sexualisation of a minor.

This is not the first controversy Kimmel has found himself in this year. The talk show host who features on the late-night TV show 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has been taking a break from the show after the controversy regarding blackface sketches as well as stereotyping African Americans. He also body-shamed talk show host Oprah Winfrey by wearing a bodysuit to match her build. Many tweeted under the #CancelJimmyKimmel hashtag to tweet their outrage against Kimmel.

Many, however, failed to understand how the world was just waking up to this. Fans stood up for her and reminded the internet of underrated films like Jennifer's Body which many claimed was one of the many films that were appropriated and sexualised by film producers and marketers.

After the outpouring of support for Fox on the internet and amid several news reports about the alleged harassment of the actor on the sets of Transformers, Fox clarified that she was not underage while auditioning for her role in the Michael Bay film.