NEW LOOK BACK

Fox appreciates message of ‘Jennifer’s Body’

three awards, and J. Balvin, who received four nominations, will make their firstever VMA performances this year, too.

Organizers said more performances will soon be revealed.

Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande are tied with nine nominations apiece to lead all artists at the 2020 VMAs. The pop stars are both nominated for video of the year and song of the year for their collaborative hit “Rain on Me.”

Fresh off a dominant showing at the 2020 Grammy Awards, Billie Eilish is nominated for six VMAs. The Weeknd also received six nominations.

The award show will mark the first event at Barclays Center since the coronavirus pandemic led to shutdowns throughout New York City in March.

Gov. Cuomo and MTV confirmed in late June that the event could physically take place at the arena with “limited capacity or no audience.”

Megan Fox went through hell and back filming one of her most famous roles.

Largely overlooked upon its 2009 release, “Jennifer’s Body,” which starred Fox as a literal man-eating cheerleader, has since become a cult film and, particularly in the wake of the #MeToo movement, has been hailed as a feminist flick.

“I just rewatched it recently actually and I forgot how much I love it. And I forgot how demented I was like during that period in my life,” Fox, 34, told the Daily News while promoting her upcoming film “Rogue” from Bulgaria.

“You know, I can see in my eyes, I remember the stuff I was going through,” she said. “And even though it was like horrendous at the time, it really helped in terms of what I was connecting to in order to be able to play that character.”

When “Jennifer’s Body” began filming following a Writers Guild of America strike, Fox was at the top of her fame.

Fresh off her steamy “Transformers” breakout, the then-21-year-old was crowned the world’s sexiest woman by men’s magazine FHM Online in April 2008.

Though the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” star was largely mum about the specific circumstances she faced at the time, Fox said she’s “really proud of that project” and believes everyone involved “invested ourselves in that and it shows.”

The titular Jennifer doesn’t start out possessed by a demon. That follows a brief flirmusicians, tation with some out-of-town who (spoiler) sacrifice her to Satan so they can become rich and famous. The sacrifice backfires and the ultimate cool girl is doomed to wander her small Minnesota town hunting male flesh.

That is, until her plain-Jane bestie Needy seeks to defeat her.

What Roger Ebert once dubbed “‘Twilight’ for boys” and the Los Angeles Times decried as “same-sexploitative,” was always much more to the cast and crew, said Fox.

“I think that we always viewed it that way, those of us who were making it,” she said, referring to herself, screenwriter Diablo Cody, director Karyn Kusama and costar Amanda Seyfried.

“I don’t know if Diablo wants to call it a feminist narwriter. rative,” she said of the “Juno” “But we were aware of the power of the project that we were making and I think that’s why, even though society missed it at that time, it was like a time capsule for what we knew we were doing.”

“So, after the Me Too movement and after culture started to catch up, they were able to look at it in retrospect and realize that message was there all along,” said Fox.

Since the cultural reckoning got underway, Jennifer has been dubbed by some “the feminist revenge hero who came too early,” and the film as a “cathartic fantasy,” pointing to the trauma endured by Jennifer as well as her “toxic” friendship with Needy.

Now, Fox says she’s “glad people have come to appreciate” the film — finally.