Quotes

[on working with Michael Bay] Michael Bay's name, if it's attached to a script, you know it's going to be a huge blockbuster released in the summer, with jets flying over at the premiere and all that kind of stuff. So I knew it was going to be a huge movie.

[on George Clooney] He's sarcastic, and he has a different girlfriend constantly. It's considered charismatic. He's like this James Bond, sexy dude. The older he gets, the better he gets. It's a double standard. To be outspoken, or different at all, is a problem for women. As soon as you curse or, God forbid, make some sort of sexual reference that's a joke, you're labeled a party girl. They don't do that with men, so I feel it would be a lot easier.

[Director Michael Bay] doesn't like really skinny actresses. He's been traumatized by them for some reason in the past. So I always try to put on eight to ten pounds before filming, and I'm always the fattest I've ever been when making a Transformers (2007) movie.

[on her Marilyn Monroe tattoo] I committed to having her face on my arm for the rest of my life, so I have to be a pretty big fan.

Wonder Woman is a lame superhero. She flies around in her invisible jet, but she's not invisible. And her weaponry is a magic lasso that makes you tell the truth. I just don't get it.

Look, I'm not a lesbian, I just think that all humans are born with the ability to be attracted to both sexes. I mean, I could see myself in a relationship with a girl. Olivia Wilde is so sexy, she makes me want to strangle a mountain ox with my bare hands. She's mesmerizing.

Zac Efron is my obsession, we're the same person. We're not actually here, it's like [Janet Jackson] and Michael Jackson. He just puts on his wig and a dress, and it's me, and you don't know that. It's one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Boys in their twenties are a waste of time. They have nothing to offer conversationally; they're immature. I feel like I have a better shot with someone in his thirties.

When I go to a party, I always feel like I'm chum. Like my agent is just chumming the waters until I'm circled by all these dudes.

People assume that I'm really promiscuous. There's a difference between being very sexual and being promiscuous. I'm not promiscuous. I'm extraordinarily sexual within a monogamous relationship. Nothing's off-limits. But that has nothing to do with experiencing a lot of people. I've only had two boyfriends my whole life.

If I ever lose a role because of my tattoos, I'll quit Hollywood and go to work at Costco.

[on Shia LaBeouf] He probably is my favourite person in the entire world. Shia makes me laugh harder than anybody I've ever known in my life. I end up crying or almost peeing myself every time I'm with him. So he's just my favourite - I love you, Shia! And he's really super-handsome!

[on Angelina Jolie] I'm actually frightened of her, I haven't had the opportunity to meet her and I try to avoid that because I'm afraid. Angelina's a powerful person and I bet she would eat me alive. I guess that is why I'm afraid of her. There have been a lot of films I've had to pass on because I don't want people thinking I'm trying to emulate her.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I had no money. I remember needing to shave my legs, and I didn't even have enough money to buy disposable razors. So I'd wear pants all the time.

Women are expected to be conformist automatons in L.A. but in Britain you can be more yourself and people will take you on face value.

I don't trust male intentions, usually, because they don't approach me for intellectual conversation.

Hollywood is the most superficial thing you could possibly be a part of and if I weren't attractive, I wouldn't be working at all.

I'm definitely labelled in the pin-up category. I haven't given people a reason to take my work seriously yet, which is my responsibility. I think the expectation for me, as far as my ability as an actress goes, is very low. I feel like that means I can only ever be an overachiever when people expect so little from me.

I was with someone from the time I was 18 and I've never been my own independent adult. Right now, there's no space in my head for who's going to be next or how I need to fill my time. I'm trying to expand myself and grow and be comfortable with who I am before I get into another relationship where I'll just repeat a cycle. Otherwise, I will have ten failed relationships. I will be Elizabeth Taylor by the time I am 60 and I don't want that.

I'm kind of a recluse. I'm a hermit and it's because I do have a great fear of Hollywood, just watching what it does to people. You have to be a really strong human being to survive it, as a girl especially. So I try to avoid the Hollywood scene as much as possible and people who enjoy the Hollywood scene -- that's usually a red flag to me. Some people might think my life is boring, but I haven't been to rehab yet, so I think I'm doing something right!

I didn't decide I'm gonna be an actress cause I wanna be respected for how I play chess.

[on Marilyn Monroe] I just had an incredible amount of empathy for her my whole life. I cry when I see her on camera.

I worked at a Tropical Smoothie in Florida when I was 15. I would sometimes have to go out by the street in a gigantic banana costume and dance to try to get customers to come in. There was no anonymity - the costume had a big hole cut out so that everyone could see your face. My friends from school would drive back and forth and yell all kinds of awesome obscenities at me.

I grew up craving the spotlight and once it happened I immediately recoiled. It just always seemed really glamorous. As a child, you think everyone who's famous is very wealthy and powerful. I thought my internal issues would be solved and I would be this really confident person. And I'm not.

[on giving male writers an amped-up version of her past] They're boys; they're easily toyed with. I tell stories and have them eating out of my hand.

Sex and the City (2008), the movie, was so tragic. Costume dramas bore me and Hollywood comedies are total garbage, not funny at all. Fame doesn't mean anything because anyone can be famous, and television news is mindless.

I have no friends and I never leave my house. You just have to make a choice to just refuse to be involved with things that could get you in trouble. It's easy when you feel upset or depressed about something to want to go to a club and want to drink, but instead I just force myself to sit and feel it and deal with it, and try to grow from it, because I don't want to go down that path. I'm one of the most isolated people in existence right now, but it's worth it because if I wasn't making that decision I would be throwing away my career.

[on Angelina Jolie] She always seems otherworldly in her power and her confidence. I'm sure she has no idea who I am.

[on Transformers (2007)] I'm terrible in it. It's my first real movie and it's not honest and not realistic. The movie wasn't bad, I just wasn't proud about what I did.

I think one day, I could be a very good actress. But so far, I haven't done anything.

I'm not going to win an Oscar anytime soon. I'm not Meryl Streep.

[on being asked if she had a crush on Angelina Jolie] Absolutely. Every time a relationship ends, I say, "If I could just be Angelina's girlfriend, I would be so happy." I love Angelina Jolie. She's someone I admire and look up to. She's my favorite actress in Hollywood. I just love that she's incredibly honest, and I feel that she's not afraid to be herself. She tells you exactly what's on her mind.

I am not a Jennifer Aniston or a Britney Spears or even a Lindsay Lohan, you know? My pictures don't sell for that kind of money. But [of] the small level that I do deal with it, it is hard and there have been times [when] people don't want to hang out with me because they don't want to end up on the Internet. I sometimes just turn around and go back home and don't do anything and have to have someone go do my grocery shopping.

[on her childhood playtime] I played with Barbies but I used to decapitate them. I used to take their heads off then dye their hair and do weird things.

[on rumours that she will star in a current Lara Croft movie] I think that's a role that Angelina Jolie mastered, and I would never attempt to take that over from her.

When you think about it, we actors are kind of prostitutes. We get paid to feign attraction and love. Other people are paying to watch us kissing someone, touching someone, doing things people in a normal monogamous relationship would never do with anyone who's not their partner. It's really kind of gross.

[on her role in Jonah Hex (2010)] I'm sort of a tough, no-nonsense prostitute, like, she'll shoot you in the head if she has to. And she does. Actually, not in the head but I get to shoot someone somewhere. It's a lot of fun.

I like to cut through the bullshit. I don't like small talk and I don't like to have to be a cookie cutter. That's a quality I started to develop as a kid in middle school. You know how everybody goes into cliques and you all talk behind everyone's back? I thought it was so ignorant. So I just really started being completely honest with everybody all of the time. It gets me into trouble often, but, at the end of the day, I think it's a good quality to have. I have become a little more aware of the media's tendency to twist things that I say.

If you know how to take control of being a sex symbol, then it can be powerful. But I have no idea how to handle it yet, how to deal with it.

If your idea of a role model is somebody who's gonna preach to your kids that sex before marriage is wrong and cursing is wrong and women should be this and be that, then I'm not a role model. But if you want your girls to feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken and fight for what they think is right, then I want to be that type of role model, yeah.

[on rumors she turned down the role of the girl in the 23rd James Bond movie] No one ever talked to me about doing that movie. I would never turn something like that down.

[on getting down to 99 pounds while shooting Jennifer's Body (2009)] I decided I would turn myself into a zombie. I got super, super skinny, stayed out of the sun for four months, and got to where I was losing my eyelashes and my eyebrows.

[on the possibility of making a sex tape] Ugh, never! That's the last thing I want to see - what I look like having sex. It would take one shot of me not looking good and I would not be able to have sex ever again, as I would always just see myself looking like a hippo having sex. It lives forever, especially now, with the Internet. I just can't. I just can't. Everything you say gets judged, everything you do gets judged. Literally, all I have left are my private parts and I don't want to also share them with the world. I'd like to keep them private. That's why they're called that.

I was never a bad girl and still not. I challenged authority in school a little bit. Now I just speak my mind openly. That's who I am.

I like someone who has a super gentle spirit and energy, who's funny and has a good sense of humour - I'm really gentle, and so I like a boy who will treat me that way. I don't like boys who are mean to their mummies. That's a real turn off for me. And I don't like boys who aren't chivalrous. To me, not being respectful is a big deal.

I think that God or the universe, or whatever you believe in, gave men brute physical strength and gave women their sexuality. It's so easy to control men with it, so I don't know why I wouldn't embrace it and allow myself to be empowered by it.

I personally always find something really scary about watching little girls learning to manipulate their dads by baby talking. Then they grow up and use the same technique on their boyfriends or husbands. That scares me because it's just so sick on so many levels.

My sense of humor doesn't translate well into print, some of the things I say can be offensive or found offensive even though I don't mean them that way. So I have been told to try and censor myself here and there. I'm trying, but I'm not really succeeding at it.

I have no idea about my future career. I just hope that I can still be working in 10 years. When you're in something as successful as Transformers (2007), you can't use it as a sales piece for your ability as an actress because it's all about the special effects.

I am very vulnerable. But I can be aggressive, hurtful, domineering and selfish, too. I'm emotionally unpredictable and all over the place. I'm a control freak.