Shia LaBeouf On Success and Perceptions

Rising Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf thinks every actor is a liar.The actor stars in one of the summer’s most eagerly awaited films, ‘Transformers’. Despite his success, the young actor keeps a low profile, by avoiding the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood party scene and having as normal a life as possible. He said: "I don’t go to clubs and you won’t see me out partying. I want a career like the acting legends I admire, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, Nicholas Cage and Sean Penn, If I’m perceived as someone like that, I’m going to be screwed trying to give a Michael Caine performance. Being seen just as a celebrity can be as bad as having your movie tank. I want to have a career that’s different from some of the people of my generation."LaBeouf - who is a keen surfer - is determined to maintain such as ordinary a life as possible so film fans can suspend disbelief when watching him on the big screen. He said: "If the industry takes you lightly because you’re always partying, then they will take your work lightly as well."

What surprised you when you saw the film ‘Transformers’ on screen

The effects are at a whole different level that I could ever possibly conceive. I’ve never seen graphics of this level and the Bumblebee Transformer that I was talking to didn’t look like Bumblebee. I mean, he was a green ball on a stick. And I loved that guy. You love that thing. You’ve gotta feel that way. That’s your best friend, dying, when they say action. It’s strange to see him because that’s not the guy you envisioned and he’s even cooler than you possibly could have conceived. For me, it’s awesome to see it. It’s the first movie where I could sit back and not be completely selfish in my viewing. A lot of times I don’t watch my movies and enjoy them, it’s study time. Like, ‘Oh, I caught you there.’ When I watch movies, that’s what I’m doing. But this was the first time I didn’t care about myself. It was the first time I didn’t care about that and it was the first time I enjoyed myself.

What did you like about appearing in this film

It’s very reactionary. People say Michael Bay is not an actor’s director but I disagree. He puts you as close to the flame as possible so you don’t have to conjure it up. It’d be real difficult to imagine you’re on the side of a building on a green screen but Bay doesn’t do that. He puts you on the side of a building. So it’s very reactionary. He’s gonna put you in these situations for real. The first day he said to me, ‘You’re going to get injured.’ Then you just have that mindset that you’re not invincible.

Did you get hurt during the filming

We were doing things with these motor explosives… I missed my step and I got to close to it and it blew up and some shrapnel hit me. It was my fault, if I had been paying attention I wouldn’t have gotten too close to it. It wasn’t stitches or anything, it just caught me.

There was a lot of improvisation in the film, which was interesting. Yeah, because it’s usually so strategised because it’s such a big budget project but Mike is so nonchalant about it. With these big movies, for him, he’s done it so many times, he’s kind of jaded. It’s like, ‘We’re going to blow up a building, don’t worry about it.’ He’s ordering his food while Los Angeles is exploding, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the chicken. Thanks.’

What’s it like working with Michael Bay

I feel like Michael Bay and me have a big brother, little brother friendship, like ‘F**k you, Mike.’ ‘F**k you, Shia.’ We’re friends and sometimes you take stuff Mike says too seriously. That’s why he’s got a bad rep’. I’m not the actor that needs a hug in the morning and Mike’s not the director who’s going to give you a hug in the morning so it works. If you’re the actor that needs to be nurtured, don’t do a Michael Bay movie.

How do you get into character

I really don’t know what I’m doing. There’s no right way to do this. I don’t know how to act. For me, it’s not that way. It’s all happenstance. I don’t know how I’m in this room right now, this is insane. I don’t know how it happens. That’s the magic of movies. I love movies. Watching movies is what I do. I’m a loner, I’m a hermit, I sit and watch movies in my house all the time. It’s weird when it becomes normal to be on movies, like, ‘Hey, Harrison.’ That’s crazy. I don’t go to sleep at night and dream about unicorns because I’m on set with unicorns. So, my dreams are like real normal shit.

So if all your dreams have come true, what do you dream about

Well I wouldn’t say I have fulfilled all my dreams. My heroes are actors so I dream about actors all the time. I don’t memorize my dreams, it’s not like they’re vivid images of what happened last night.

How did you start acting

My friend was on this show called ‘Dr. Quinn’, ‘Medicine Woman’. I was broke and he always had cool s**t. I’d go surfing and he’d always have a cooler surf board and my s**t sucked. He’d get the latest Gameboy and when you’re 8 or 9 it’s materialistic. When you go to school, you’ve got the cool shoes and that’s how you define yourself. And I didn’t have any of that stuff and it drove me crazy. My parents didn’t have regular gigs, they lived a gypsy life so I never had the cool shoes or the cool this or the cool that so the reason I got into this wasn’t for the craft of it. I wanted the cool kicks. And it wasn’t until I started work that I really started the craft of acting.

What’s your relationship like with Jon Voight, who you met on the set of ‘Holes’

He introduced me to the idea that actors are magicians, what an actor’s responsibility is, how to maintain normality. Stuff like that, he’s very charitable in the things that he says and I don’t think he realizes that he says change-your-life kind of stuff. Mention five, six, seven worlds and you’re just like, ‘Whoa, my whole world just opened up.’ And he’s like, nonchalant about it, ‘Yeah, I’ll just give you a little titbit.’ Or movies you’d never seen, ‘Here’s ‘Blackboard Jungle’, go have fun.’ Why would I ever watch Blackboard Jungle I’m watching ‘Sandlot’, ‘Babes in Toyland’. Those are the movies I was watching before I met Voight. He introduced me to the other side of it.

Is it crazy to have evolved from your pre-teen show, ‘Even Stevens’, to bigger productions like ‘Transformers’

It’s weird. I was 12 and they were paying me to have food fights. It was the dream gig. I wasn’t thinking this is a big show, that people were watching it. I was living in a motel and my dad was driving me to set on his motorcycle and this was my family. I knew them more than my parents. I saw them more than I saw my parents. It was a familial thing, they became my family. I grew up on set. I went through puberty on the show. Your childhood, you’re just conjuring it up for the show. You get real young when they call action.

Do you think you’ve missed out on your childhood

I had a normal life… I’m an actor, it’s not like I’m going to clubs. I’m not selling this personality. No, I don’t have those feelings. I put this on my wrist, (refers to a tattoo that says 1986-2004 on his wrist). This is my childhood, it’s precautionary. This is when I was born (1986), this is when thought I became an adult (2004). So it’s precautionary just in case.

Tell me something I don’t know about Indiana Jones. Can’t do it. There’s something that happens to you when Steven Spielberg looks at you and says, ‘I’m counting on you, kid.’ I’m not good at keeping secrets. It’s like winning the Super Bowl and not being able to tell anyone. There’s so much I want to say.

Were you a fan of ‘Indiana Jones’ before you started filming

‘Indiana Jones’ It’s one of the greatest franchises ever created. It’s a trio of icons. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford sitting around shooting the s**t and you’re right there. It’s a weird life. It’s amazing. To say that I missed out on my childhood is crazy. It’s just heightened childhood.

By Rachel Johnson.