I wish I could say that I think Shia LaBeouf is a monster. I don’t. I think he’s a screwed up guy with addiction issues, and those addiction issues led to many not-great moments over the past few years. Throughout it all, there’s something strangely compelling about Shia, something watchable, mercurial, unknowable. Which is probably why he still has a career, despite years of violent, stupid and dickish antics. Shia covers the new issue of Variety to promote his latest film, American Honey, and this interview is a trip. Literally, I felt like I got a contact high from this piece. Shia talks openly about his struggles, but what’s weird is that at no point does he apologize or ask for forgiveness for his antics. He even acknowledges that he’s coming from a place of enormous privilege, and that if he was anything other than a white dude, he would have no career. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
His relationship with alcohol: “That sh-t almost f–ked up my life. I had people tell me it was going to. People I respected — dudes I wanted to work with — just looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Life’s too short for this sh-t.’ I’m still earning my way back. I’m happy working.”
He hasn’t had a drink in a year, he attends AA meetings: “You don’t touch it. Alcohol or any of that sh-t will send you haywire. I can’t f–k with none of it. I’ve got to keep my head low… I got a Napoleonic complex. I start drinking and I feel smaller than I am, and I get louder than I should. It’s just not for me, dude.”
He got 12 tattoos during ‘American Honey’, two of Missy Elliott. “I don’t love Missy Elliott like I wanna get two Missy Elliott tattoos. But you’re in a tattoo parlor, and” — he shrugs — “peer pressure.”
He’s not in it for the Oscars: “Nah, dude, not me. The Oscars are about politics. I gotta earn my way back. It’s not about who is the best. I’m not that guy for a long time — for a long, long time. I’m good with that, though. Sometimes that sh-t is a curse.”
If he was a woman… “It’s a double standard, for sure. Women require grace for longevity. I don’t think men require grace. You can be Mickey Rourke.”
He hates the word ‘Method’: “The word is getting embarrassing. You don’t hear about female method actors. The whole thing has turned into weird, false masculinity sh-t.”
He auditioned for Scott Eastwood’s role in Suicide Squad: “The character was different initially. Then Will [Smith] came in, and the script changed a bit. That character and Tom [Hardy’s] character [later played by Joel Kinnaman] got written down to build Will up. I don’t think Warner Bros. wanted me. I went in to meet, and they were like, ‘Nah, you’re crazy. You’re a good actor, but not this one.’ It was a big investment for them.”
He would love to work with Michael Bay again. “Mike is an artist. People don’t realize how dope that dude is. He’s got to get a little ballsier with his moves — he’s trying to toe the line and be James Cameron, but James Camerons are dying. I don’t know what he’s chasing, but that version of director is dead. If Mike is to sustain, he’s got to get f–king weird.”
Working with Steven Spielberg: “I grew up with this idea, if you got to Spielberg, that’s where it is. I’m not talking about fame, and I’m not talking about money. You get there, and you realize you’re not meeting the Spielberg you dream of. You’re meeting a different Spielberg, who is in a different stage in his career. He’s less a director than he is a f–king company. Spielberg’s sets are very different. Everything has been so meticulously planned. You got to get this line out in 37 seconds. You do that for five years, you start to feel like not knowing what you’re doing for a living…I don’t like the movies that I made with Spielberg. The only movie that I liked that we made together was ‘Transformers’ one.”
Texture: “Part of it was posturing. I never knew how to drink. I never liked to drink, but I knew you had to drink. It was a weird post-modern fascination with the f–k-ups. When I met Robert Downey Jr., I was like, ‘Man, you got all this f–king texture. How do I do this? How do I build texture?’”
There are about a million other good/interesting quotes from the piece, but you should really just read the whole thing. The thing is, as I said up top, Shia is not really sorry. He doesn’t say he’s sorry. He’s not going on an apology tour. He’s not Justin Bieber. Shia believes all of the drama and antics and drinking have helped him shake off his stardom to a certain extent, and now he’s a different person with a different kind of fame. And he’s not sorry. And he won’t be working with Spielberg again any time soon. He probably will work with Bay again though?
Photos courtesy of Variety.
Method acting ‘has turned into weird, false masculinity sh-t’ …. But Baby…. you are the Epitome of this Pedantic ass Crap?!!? sooooo
It’s true and he has no self awareness.
I read that line and spit out my coffee. Shia saying that is ripe. He (and Leto) tried to turn method acting into some macho bs and it just makes me laugh like when my little 5-yr-old string bean tries to act like a tough guy. But when my kid does it, it’s cute…..
He does have a point though in that you don’t hear about female actors going method the same way male actors do. Just imagine if a woman pulled all the crazy “method” crap that Jared Leto did on set – sending colleagues used condoms, dead rats, fetal pigs or whatever he did. The press would be unforgiving and likely the story line would be “who does she think she is to behave like that” – whereas it’s just fine for a male actor.
@CD3 That is so true! I love movies and follow the oscars and related campaigns and I cannot believe I never saw this before.
Ugh, my first exposure to Shia was Project Greenlight when he was a child. An awful child who has grown into an awful adult. And not nearly as talented as he thinks he is.
I loved him on Project Greenlight. Although he was just a kid, he took the work very seriously. Not seriously as in prima donna but seriously in how he prepared for his scenes and how he was already trying to ground his performance in his own lived experiences. Iirc, he signed on because the script had a deathbed scene that mirrored something he had been through with a grandparent. I could see why the Ben and the director loved him.
He reminded me of a young Henny Youngman and he treated Amy Smart horribly.
Methinks he flubbed his Revenant audition.
Labeouf has to be talking about Jared Leto. Leto killed method acting.
He must have read last month’s article at The Atlantic, “Hollywood Has Ruined Method Acting.” It was about Jered Leto and actors v. actresses.
I will never forgive him for that hideous episode with Mia Goth where he basically had to be held back from hitting her, and then raged on about how it was her fault.
This guy seemed so happy and carefree in Even Stevens… makes me sad to see him now. I hope he overcomes his addiction problems…. and whatever other problems he has. It seems like he’s always overthinking everything and, despite what he says, he’s obsessed with appearances – his own and others – like he wants to have this texture and not seem falsely masculine. He’s clearly not comfortable in his own skin. When the fourth Indiana Jones movie came out, god it was an awful movie, but I liked the idea of him being the next Indiana.
There always seemed to be something not at all carefree underneath in his Even Stevens role. So it was always there even when he was young.
Norman Reedus’s stank looks like it has some competition for Diane Krueger’s delicate nose!
So Shia read the article from The Atlantic on how Hollywood has ruined method acting (see: Jared Leto) and he’s trying to pass it off as his own insight.
Hahahahahaha! You’re right! I read that too Shia, maybe Variety will interview me?
The Spielberg comments come across as incredibly rude and ungracious (me thinks someone has daddy issues?).
Spielberg was a producer on Transformers and gave him enormous opportunities. Shia made a hell of a lot of money too thanks to that relationship (which I note he hasn’t donated to charity). I don’t find him “edgy” or “real”, just childish and tiresome.
I thought that too. And, even if he doesn’t admit having been one of the people he’s criticizing he must realize how ridiculous these young method actors look in their try hard behaviors.
He might not be wrong about a Spielberg set (I have no idea), but if an actress had said half of that, she’d have been crucified for ‘lack of gratitude’.
He makes me quite sad though. I hope he can overcome all his addiction issues.
Cant stand this guy. For all his talk of Method acting, has he ever ACTUALLY studied it?!
He’s absolutely right about “method acting” has become more a piss contest among young try hards actors that want more to impress than actually use an inner process. They, more than just going through it, they TALK about it. I’ve never heard Daniel Day Lewis, legit method actor, giving interviews explaining his method and how badass he is. Women don’t need that “puffing-chest” fakery. They just do their thing without interfering in other people’s process.
Read this idiot Ben Foster how he’s desperate for attention describing his tortured artist stuff:
“So I got a bottle of vodka and a Buck knife my brother gave me and dry-shaved my beard into Tanner’s handlebar deal, washing off the blood with the vodka. I might have had a drink or two to help with the ritual. Tanner knocked, I shaved, I bled, I washed off, I flew.” Sipping his coffee slowly, he added that, in Albuquerque, “I’d pre-ordered a power drill from Amazon, so I could drill down my veneers and get a broken front tooth.” from a New Yorker interview.
Michael Rappaport recently made fun of him in a podcast: “just do your job, motherf*cker…”
Foster, Shia, Leo, Leto..they may or may not be method actors, talented or not: they all just want to get noticed.
Ben Foster is just bizarre. That quote is pathetic and desperate!
Oh and Ben? Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges are getting equally good if not better reviews for your movie…and neither felt the need to act like a psycho. Give it some thought.
well, this is exactly what those kids want people to think: that they’re psychos, tortured artists suffering for their art, giving it ALL….when the reality is that they’re just trying so hard to look like badasses….most of them are just white kids who grew up in wealthy, safe homes, with happy childhoods…but desperate to look street and troubled and psycho.
Alice – Shia does seem to have a cringeworthy childhood in back of him, though. I don’t think his family was rich. I think he was the breadwinner as a child actor, if I’m remembering correctly.
What does it take to totally kill a career these days. He needs to go away, he’s mentally ill.
Exctly. He just using this ”artistic’ BS to cover his disgusting personality and violent actions.
Never liked him, never will. He’s pretentious as hell and a terrible actor. Ugh.
I still kind of liked this interview and I also agree on what he says about method acting.