Over the past decade, Shia LaBeouf has gone from loveable child star to Hollywood’s newest bad boy.
In recent months he’s given us a lot of head-scratching behavior; such as wearing a paper bag over his head with the words “I am not famous anymore,” getting arrested for disturbing a Broadway performance of Cabaret, and his feud with actor Alec Baldwin that led to LaBeouf’s dismissal from the movie Orphans.
Despite entertaining, and somewhat worrying, us with his public displays of foolery, the Transformers actor insists there is a “method” to his madness.
In the latest issue of Interview mag, LaBeouf sits down for a lengthy interview and no topic was off-limits. When it came to his feud with Baldwin, LaBeouf claimed his technique of method acting was to blame.
“Baldwin and I butted heads hard. I came in method. I was sleeping in the park. I’d wake up, walk to rehearsal. I was so scared to do the play that I had memorized it before ever coming to rehearsal. And my whole goal was to intimidate the fuck out of Baldwin. That was the role. That was my job as an actor. And it wasn’t going to be fake. I wanted him to be scared. So I went about doing that for three weeks of rehearsal, to the point that, in the end, it was unsustainable.”
LaBeouf even went on to claim that he would sometimes follow Baldwin home from rehearsals in his continued effort to intimidate him through method acting. Method acting, or just downright creepy? We’re voting creepy. But, all is well that ends well and according to LaBeouf, the two actors have since made peace.
“He was the first dude to hit me up after I got out of court. He sent me an e-mail. It’s really beautiful. I was crying on an airplane. And I hadn’t talked to him since I got fired.”
These days, LaBeouf has moved on from the drama surrounding his Orphans departure and is now focusing on promoting his new role in Fury. In the film, Shia portrays a man of strong religious faith, which has affected his real-life religious views as well.
“I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way—in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page. But it was a real thing that really saved me. And you can’t identify unless you’re really going through it. It’s a full-blown exchange of heart, a surrender of control. And while there’s beauty to that, acting is all about control. So that was a wild thing to navigate.”
Does this mean we’ll be seeing a new Shia LaBeouf in the months to come? One who doesn’t frequent NYC courtrooms? Only time will tell.
PHOTO CREDIT & SOURCE: Interview Magazine
