Shia LaBeouf Was Once Fired For His Erratic Method Acting
By Favour Adegoke on December 20, 2021 at 11:00 AM EST
Shia LaBeouf has always been in the news. The actor's name has graced many headlines for his attitude during filming sets.
For instance, he rubbed Alec Baldwin the wrong way during the production of "Orphans," which eventually cost him a role he was obsessed about.
Recently he has been trying to explain his behaviors, and they are a little bit on the wild side. "Metamodernism has influenced a lot of my action in public in this last year and a half," the star explained to Interview magazine. He also mentioned that his erratic attitude was because he wanted to get into the character. "My whole goal was to intimidate the f— out of Baldwin," he shared, adding that he wanted Baldwin "to be scared."
After his exit from the production, he started following Baldwin home. "I was trying to take my mind off the play, but I couldn't do it," LaBeouf confessed. "So I would follow him from rehearsal to his home. I needed to have closure." However, LaBeouf mentioned that there is no bad blood between them, and he was even brought to tears by a heartfelt email sent by Baldwin following his court date for the Cabaret outburst.
Alec Baldwin's Perspective On The Incident
As reported by the New York magazine, Baldwin mentioned that he was continually verbally attacked by the "Transformers" star. "One day, he attacked me in front of everyone. He said, 'You're slowing me down, and you don't know your lines. And if you don't say your lines, I'm just going to keep saying my lines.'"
The actor mentioned that he sat frozen and speechless for a long time. "We all sat, frozen. I snorted a bit, and, turning to him in front of the whole cast, I asked, 'If I don't say my words fast enough, you're going to just say your next line?' I said. 'You realize the lines are written in a certain order?' He just glared at me."
Baldwin mentioned that he asked for a time out to unpack the incident. He later went to speak to director Dan Sullivan and offered to quit the project. On the other hand, he insisted they didn't fire LaBeouf.
But the actor claimed that LaBeouf, who he was aware was "potentially very difficult to work with," was "shocked" when he was given his marching orders from the show.
He Also Abused Substances In The Production Of 'Country Man'
However, that was not the only time he was enshrined in a controversy. During the filming of "Country Man," he was alleged to be under the influence of LSD. This almost led to director Fredrik Bond turning his back on the project.
"He wanted to break for lunch while I was tripping on drugs. I was like, 'We can't break for lunch, I'm on f—ing drugs,'" LaBeouf explained to Interview magazine. "Right after that acid trip, I was choking Bond — my trainer had to pull me off him." In his defense, LaBeouf disclosed that he felt the need to do drugs during the shoot because of a "lack of control caused by irrational commitment."
"Sometimes, it does get real," he confessed. "Too real for a director who's trying to keep a diplomatic set."
He also implied that some actors wouldn't take some of his roles because of their inability to get into character. "I'm done," he declared. "There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist. You give Terrence Malick a movie like Transformers, and he's f—ed. There's no way for him to exist in that world."
The Real Reason LaBeouf Pushes Himself To The Extreme
At the European premiere of his film, which happened at the end of the BFI London Film Festival, the actor admitted he pushed himself to extremes because he was insecure about his craft and lacked confidence in his acting.
LaBeouf spotted in Leicester Square with girlfriend Mia Goth, confessed, "I don't have faith in my abilities or skill set."
The "Transformers" star, who started his career from childhood, continued, "It's like if I told you to react to a gunshot right now. It would be much easier if I just got a gun out and pulled the trigger because you wouldn't have to conjure anything. You would react to it. I try to alter my life so that I don't have to conjure anything or to make belief."
Other Controversies
In the 2010 "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," LaBeouf had a strained relationship with director Oliver Stone.
"I think he felt that I was an imbecile and talked down to me the whole time, so that I looked up to him as a scholar," LaBeouf explained. He mentioned that he respected the director but called him a "manipulator" who made him "feel so stupid."
He also got into a fiasco for plagiarizing Daniel Clowes' comic book and turning it into a short story. In his defense, he took a bit of inspiration from Clowes because of "a fear of my ideas."