Transformers made Shia LaBeouf a mega-star, but then he followed that up with legal troubles,
resentment, and some generally bizarre behavior.
Shia LaBeouf had a complicated childhood.
His parents were both artists, so the family wasn't exactly rolling in cash.
His father in particular wasn't always pleasant to be around.
He was a professional clown who had a history of drug addiction following his military service
in Vietnam.
After his parents separated, an adolescent LaBeouf began mapping out a career that he
hoped would help with finances.
He was inspired by a friend who seemed to have it all after an appearance on Dr. Quinn,
Medicine Woman.
So he started doing stand-up, during which he sported overalls and a bowl cut in front
of a room full of adults looking for a laugh.
He managed to quickly make a name for himself with the mouth of an adult on the body of
a kid.
LaBeouf's next move was landing an agent by pretending to be his own 50-year-old English
manager.
The agent that he hired helped significantly by paying his family's rent, driving him to
auditions, and booking him his breakout role.
At the age of 12, Shia LaBeouf landed the role that would change his life forever.
On the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens, he played Louis, the youngest sibling of the
titular Stevens family.
The show ran for three seasons, 65 episodes, and a full-length made-for-TV movie from 2000
to 2003.
In 2003, LaBeouf was honored with a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding performer in a
children's series.
The same year, he starred in the movie Holes alongside big-name actors like Sigourney Weaver
and Jon Voight, the latter of whom took LaBeouf on as a mentee.
Holes also got the attention of a certain major Hollywood director by the name of Steven
Spielberg.
After he watched the movie with his kids, Spielberg recommended LaBeouf for a certain
upcoming flick about alien robots that he was producing.
It may be one of the biggest franchises around today, but when the first live-action Transformers
came out in 2007, there was plenty of skepticism about whether or not it could actually rake
in the bucks.
The idea of adapting a Hasbro toy line and cartoon from the 1980s into an action blockbuster
wasn't exactly a slam dunk proposition.
But it had some serious industry power behind it, with Steven Spielberg producing and Michael
Bay directing.
Shia LaBeouf was cast in the lead human role as Sam Witwicky, who has unknowingly inherited
a connection to an ongoing war between extraterrestrial robots.
With Decepticons set on taking over the world, Sam helps the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime,
save the planet.
With a heavy dose of fast cars, military weapons, and loads of CGI, Transformers managed to
be a massive success, collecting over $700 million at the worldwide box office.
And suddenly, Shia LaBeouf found himself catapulted into mega-stardom.
"The boy's pheromone level suggests he wants to mate with the female."
Around the time that Transformers that came out, Shia LaBeouf was being touted as the
next big thing in Hollywood.
Steven Spielberg doubled down on his faith in the young thespian by casting him as the
son of Indiana Jones.
As the director raved to Time Magazine,
"Shia is within everyone's reach.
He's every mother's son, every father's spitting image, every young kid's best pal and every
girl's possible dream."
2007 was undeniably quite the year for LaBeouf.
In addition to one of the summer's biggest blockbusters, he also starred in the thriller
Disturbia and the animated penguin comedy Surf's Up.
But then the following year, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn't
exactly the most beloved entry in that long-running franchise.
As the actor bemoaned to the Los Angeles Times,
"I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished."
LaBeouf returned to play Sam Witwicky again for two Transformers sequels: 2009's Revenge
of the Fallen and 2011's Dark of the Moon.
But those experiences were filled with conflict, as he arrived on the set of Revenge of the
Fallen with an injured hand after being arrested for suspicion of drunk driving.
The charges were ultimately dropped, but the injury resulted in some necessary script changes.
Making matters worse, the 2007 to 2008 Writers Guild of America strike resulted in Revenge
of the Fallen beginning production without a finalized script.
Despite that setback and less-than-stellar reviews, it still earned over $800 million
at the global box office.
But LaBeouf wasn't exactly happy with the end result.
As he put it in an interview,
"We weren't making a movie to make a good movie.
We were making a movie to hit a date."
Two years later, Dark of the Moon broke the $1 billion mark at the global box office and
was slightly better received critically.
But before it even hit theaters, LaBeouf had already announced that he would be moving
away from the franchise.
"No, no.
No, no."
The news that LaBeouf was exiting Transformers was a shock to nearly everyone.
The franchise had made him one of Hollywood's most bankable young stars, but he chose to
use that clout to pursue more artistic independent films instead.
As he told The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast in 2019,
"I don't think there was any acting going on.
This was, like, personality.
There was no acting going on for the huge front half of my career.
This was all just my personality exhibited on a camera."
The key transitional moment for LeBeouf's career happened when he starred in 2010's
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
As he recalled,
"I was trying to shake off Disney.
I was trying to shake off blockbusters."
As for the fourth Transformers movie, Michael Bay resisted studio pressure to recast LaBeouf's
role and instead opted to bring in Mark Wahlberg as a fresh face for the franchise.
As it turned out, Shia LaBeouf's legal troubles weren't the only thing plaguing the Transformers
films, as his co-star Megan Fox wasn't exactly comfortable while making them, to put it mildly.
In a 2009 interview with Wonderland Magazine, she revealed that Michael Bay was a nightmare
to work with, and she even compared his directing style to Adolf Hitler.
She was fired from the franchise, but she and Bay would eventually bury the hatchet
and reunite for 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
This unsettling treatment wasn' ignored by LaBeouf, who admitted that he had a romantic
fling with his co-star.
As he explained to the Los Angeles Times,
"Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman empowerment that made her feel
awkward about her involvement with Michael, who some people think is a very lascivious
filmmaker, the way he films women."
He continued,
"Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality.
And I think [Megan] never got comfortable with it.
When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk.
And the one thing Mike lacks is tact."
After his time with Transformers, LaBeouf's controversial reputation would only grow and
grow.
In February 2013, a Broadway production of the play Orphans was canceled after he reportedly
quit over what was later revealed to be a fight between him and his co-star Alec Baldwin.
That fight gave fire to the rumors that LaBeouf also got into an altercation with Tom Hardy
on the set of the 2012 film Lawless a year prior.
But as LaBeouf claimed during an appearance on the YouTube talk show Hot Ones, there was
nothing to that story beyond some playful wrestling.
"I look up to Tom as an actor, and I respect him as an actor.
He has a different appetite for, you know, being a Method actor than I do."
Then in 2014, LaBeouf was arrested after causing a scene at a Broadway production of Cabaret.
This was just the beginning of a string of arrests for disorderly conduct, as he again
faced charges in 2015 and 2017.
The latter of those arrests was a self-admitted "new low" for LaBeouf, as he was caught on
camera accusing a Black police officer of arresting him for "being white."
And that wasn't the end of his run-ins with the law, as he was charged with misdemeanor
battery and petty theft in 2020.
In 2016, the always-candid Shia LaBeouf was making headlines again after an interview
with Variety saw him insulting his work with Steven Spielberg.
As the actor put it,
"I grew up with this idea, if you got to Spielberg, that's where it is [...] 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---ing company."
LaBeouf went on to say that the only movie he appreciated making under Spielberg was
the first Transformers.
As he declared,
"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."
However, the actor later retracted his statements and admitted that Spielberg opened a lot of
doors for him.
Despite all his misdeeds and lack of tact, Shia LaBeouf has managed to build himself
the artistic career of his dreams.
Since his blockbuster days, he's taken on more character-driven work in the likes of
such films as Fury, Borg vs McEnroe, and Honey Boy.
He's also challenged himself with a move into the director's chair, adding a few short films
and music videos to his resume.
And one of his most notable projects, a motivational speech titled "#Introductions", became a popular
internet meme.
"Do it!
Just do it!"
LaBeouf has also branched into some other, odder artistic pursuits.
In 2015, he broadcast a livestream of himself watching all of his own movies.
He followed that up a year later by spending 24 hours inside an elevator and going on a
journey across America where fans could pick him up and drop him off wherever they chose.
Unfortunately, LaBeouf has also become equally famous for his plagiarism.
A short film that the budding director debuted at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival was discovered
to be a rip-off from a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes.
LaBeouf later tweeted an apology, which was itself discovered to be plagiarized.
Subsequently, two comic books that he'd previously released were also condemned for plagiarism.
LaBeouf's ongoing troubles have only seemed to get worse over time.
In 2020, a former romantic partner of his, singer FKA Twigs, filed a lawsuit alleging
a range of acts, including violence towards her and shooting guns at stray dogs.
She also accused him of not disclosing an STD infection to her.
LaBeouf has since owned up to the fact that his behavior in that relationship was disgusting.
During a 2022 appearance on the Real Ones podcast, he admitted,
"I was a pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being."
"I hurt that woman.
You know?
And in the process of doing that, I hurt many other people, and many other people before
that woman."
LaBeouf also attempted to credit his former partner for positively changing his life.
As he put it,
"Had she not intervened in my life and not created the avenue for me to experience ego
death, I'd either have a really mediocre existence or I'd be dead in full."
Shia LaBeouf now finds himself in a struggle for redemption.
Becoming a father is one experience that has helped him recalibrate his life.
As he explained on the Real Ones podcast:
"It's almost like having the ultimate parole officer."
"I need somebody to keep me accountable."
Despite that effort, LaBeouf once again found himself at the center of a high-profile feud.
After leaving the cast of the 2022 film Don't Worry Darling, he and director Olivia Wilde
have offered differing takes over whether he was quit or fired.
Nevertheless, his career has remained alive, as he's set to star in the 2024 Francis Ford
Coppola-directed sci-fi epic Megalopolis.
Meanwhile, the Transformers movies have continued to truck along without their former star,
with the latest entry, Rise of the Beasts, arriving in theaters on June 9, 2023.
The plan is to launch a new trilogy of Transformers films.
Separately, Transformers One, set for release in 2024, will act as a prequel to the established
franchise.
And yet another movie inspired by the toy line is reportedly in the works under director
Angel Manuel Soto.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.