BY: LBS STAFF
Published 4 days ago
The actor explained the origins of his conflict with Baldwin during their time preparing for the 2013 Broadway production, “Orphans,” before LaBeouf eventually withdrew, and discussed their current relationship.
Shia LaBeouf is looking back at working with Alec Baldwin.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter while promoting his new film, Henry Johnson, the actor recalled on-set tension he experienced with Baldwin when the two were set to co-star in the 2013 Broadway play, Orphans.
LaBeouf said he had prepared for the role for years alongside Al Pacino, before Pacino dropped out, and Baldwin came in as his replacement. According to LaBeouf, Baldwin joining the cast last minute ultimately resulted in them not getting along, with the Even Stevens alum admitting that he was mainly to blame.
“By the time Baldwin got there, it was almost unfair. So he’s dealing with both my fractured little weak ego, right?” LaBeouf told THR. “All this hard prep that I’d done for two years, and my desperate need to show him all my prep, or that he would accept me somehow. I was so insecure. Well, that got contentious in the room. Then he got competitive. That’s just what our relationship turned into.”
“I’d be off book, he’d be on book, and he didn’t want me to look at him be off book. That makes it hard to play these scenes out or block this thing even. And no fault against him, he had two weeks to come in because Pacino [dropped out],” he continued. “I had built the whole thing based on my relationship with Pacino. And that’s gone. So I was kind of heartbroken.”
The Honey Boy star added that he was at a low point in his life when Baldwin joined the production, revealing that he was “living” and “sleeping” in Central Park and was “on steroids” during “most of the prep.”
LaBeouf shared that he joined Baldwin’s acting class he was teaching at New York University.
“Alec started teaching at NYU — a class on acting while I was doing these rehearsals with him. And I was like, ‘How? You’re still not off book!'” So then I started taking his class. It got insane.”
LaBeouf ultimately dropped out of Orphans, but he said he and Baldwin were able to patch things up.
“Me and him are good because he’s gone through a lot. I’ve gone through a lot,” he reflected. “We’ve both been able to send each other love and make it right before all the madness happened on both sides. We made it right. He’s a good guy. He’s just like me. Fear will make you move different. I found it came from having absolutely no spiritual life.”
“That’ll do it,” said LaBeouf’s Henry Johnson director, David Mamet, who also wrote the play in which the film is based. LaBeouf admitted in reply, “It made me a piece of s–t. Not a nice guy.”
Baldwin, meanwhile, told Vulture in 2014 that there was “friction” between himself and LaBeouf “from the beginning,” claiming his co-star had a “jailhouse mentality.”
Elsewhere in LaBeouf’s interview with THR, the 38-year-old — who has been open about his past struggles with alcohol and drug addiction — shared how his “close” friend Mel Gibson, along with actors Sean Penn and James Brolin, helped on his sobriety journey.
When asked if he’s still in contact with Gibson, LaBeouf said, “Yeah. Very close. Big respect, big love. He’s always been very lovely to me. He held my hand when I was really s–ting on myself. Dude really stepped up for me in big ways.”
“Him, Sean Penn, James Brolin — these guys got me to sobriety. They got around me and kept me alive,” he continued. “Sean also showed up and motivated me to do [Henry Johnson] as a play. I was scared as f–k when this thing started. He was there week one. Sam Rockwell came. There was a bunch of guys that I looked up to that just started popping up. I had never, ever felt that kind of love — not like that.
LaBeouf — who previously shared that he became found Catholicism after playing the 20th-century Italian priest Francesco Forgione in the 2022 film, Padre Pio — was asked if he felt that his role in Henry Johnson “could be a sort of gateway to rehabilitation” for him.
“I hope so. I hope my whole life is about that. I hope my whole life is squaring things, getting it right,” he admitted. “It’s what I want to do with the rest of my life. And there’s a lot of things to get right. I’m blessed that I still have this craft and I’m still allowed to do it at a high level with the highest. It feels like a f–king miracle.”
“It’s all part of the same thing — God’s everything or nothing. I believe that. Me and Dave have big God talks,” he added. “I’ve been to temple with him. He’s been to church with me. Been deep dives for both of us.”
LaBeouf has previously likened his pursuit of redemption to that of Gibson, who has been the subject of controversy over allegations of racism, homophobia, antisemitism and domestic violence, and Brolin, who was charged with domestic battery in 2004. Both Gibson and Brolin also struggled with alcohol abuse and drug addiction.
LaBeouf’s new film comes as he’s set to take the stand later this year, nearly five years after his ex-girlfriend, FKA Twigs, accused him of a myriad of abuse allegations in 2020.
She accused him of “relentless abuse,” including sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. FKA Twigs — who dated LaBeouf for less than a year after the two met on the set of Honey Boy in 2018 — also claimed LaBeouf knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, and alleged he killed stray dogs.
While LaBeouf has denied FKA Twigs’ allegations, he told The New York Times at the time, “Although many of these allegations are not true. I am not in the position to defend any of my actions. I owe these women the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those thing I have done. As someone in recovery, I have to face almost daily reminders of things I did say and do when I was drinking.”
