In April 2009, Fox began filming Jonah Hex, in which she portrayed Leila, a gun-wielding beauty and Jonah Hex's (Josh Brolin) love interest. The film was released on June 18, 2010 and co-starred Will Arnett; Despite receiving top billing, Fox has described her role in the film as being a cameo. Jonah Hex was universally panned by critics and was a box office bomb in the U.S., having its international distribution cancelled after its poor performance. The film was named the "worst picture of the year by the Houston Film Critics Society. Fox next starred alongside Mickey Rourke in Passion Play. The film received such bad reviews after its screening at the Toronto Film festival that its plans for a conventional theatrical distribution were withheld for a direct-to-video release with only two screens briefly showing the film to fulfill contractual obligations. Mickey Rourke remarked that Passion Play was "terrible. Another terrible movie."
In early April 2009, Fox signed on to star as the lead female role in the upcoming 2011 film The Crossing, about a young couple who get caught up in a drug trafficking scheme during their vacation to Mexico. In March 2009, Variety reported that Fox was set to star as the lead role of Aspen Matthews in the film adaption of the comic books Fathom which she will also co-produce with Brian Austin Green. Fathom is currently in pre-production. Fox appeared with Dominic Monaghan in the music video for Eminem and Rihanna's single "Love the Way You Lie".
During an interview with The Times, on the topic of being a role model, Fox stated: "It depends on what your idea of a role model is," and continued with, "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." Fox said in the same interview, on the topic of being typecast that: "Getting typecast as what? Attractive? How bad is that?" She feels that it isn't a bad thing to be typecast in this way and considers it to be flattering. She also believes that it gives her an advantage because people will not expect her to be more than simply attractive and when she does give a good performance, people will be surprised. Fox has shown interest in portraying a character less sexualized than that of Mikaela Banes, whom she portrays in the Transformers film series.
