Actress Olivia Wilde has spilled the beans on why she fired Shia LaBeouf from the upcoming movie, Don’t Worry Darling.
LaBeouf is no stranger to controversy.
The Transformers star was arrested in the early hours of July 8, 2017, when he flew into a drunken rage when a passerby wouldn’t give him a cigarette.
“He became disorderly, using profanities and vulgar language in front of the women and children present,” the police statement reported.
“He was told to leave the area and refused, becoming aggressive toward the officer.”
“When the officer attempted to place LaBeouf under arrest, LaBeouf ran to a nearby hotel,” the report continued.
“LaBeouf was arrested in the hotel lobby, where his disorderly behavior continued.”
But a leaked video shows the actor in a complete rage, spitting torrents of abuse at the police officers and innocent passers-by.
In the video, which was originally obtained by TMZ, an irate LaBeouf tells one of the arresting officers, who is black, “You got a president that don’t give a f*** about you, and you’re stuck in a police force that doesn’t give a f*** about you. You want to arrest white people who give a f***?”
He then added, “I’ve got more millionaire lawyers than you know what to do with, you stupid b*tch.”
His torrent of abuse continued right up until he was booked. After the arrest, he was released on a $7,000 bond.
Taking to Twitter, the actor apologized to the arresting officers whom he had offended. He wrote: “I am certain that my actions warrant a very sincere apology to the arresting officers, and I am grateful for their restraint. The severity of my behavior is not lost on me.”
“It is a new low. A low I hope is a bottom,” LaBeouf continued.
“I have been struggling with addiction publicly for far too long, and I am actively taking steps toward securing my sobriety and hope I can be forgiven for my mistakes,” he finished.
The actor hasn’t been shy about reflecting on that dark time of his life.
He’s opened up about it all.
LaBeouf revisited the events in an interview with Esquire, where he reflected on the incident and took full responsibility for his actions.
He said: “What went on in Georgia was mortifying.”
“White privilege and desperation and disaster … It came from a place of self-centered delusion.” And he owned his mistakes by saying, “It was me trying to absolve myself of guilt for getting arrested.”
But he also revealed another sweet detail.
In an interview with the UK’s Channel 4, LaBeouf explained that his co-star, Zack Gottsagen from the movie, The Peanut Butter Falcon, “saved him” after his 2017 arrest.
In the movie, LaBeouf stars alongside Gottsagen, who, living with the genetic condition himself, plays a man with Down’s syndrome that dreams of becoming a pro wrestler.
He said it was Gottsagen’s brutal honesty that brought him back from what he has described as a “twisted” time in his life.
LaBeouf said that the day after he was arrested, he was on a boat with the rest of the Peanut Butter Falcon cast and “couldn’t really look anybody in the eye.” It was then, LaBeouf said, that Gottsagen put his hand on his shoulder.
“Zack nursed me back, on a boat, during a scene where we’re talking about, like, the painful past,” LaBeouf said. “That stuff hurts.”
Gottsagen explained how he gave LaBeouf “one chance to prove to himself: never, never, never do this kind of stuff again.”
LaBeouf agreed, at that very moment on the boat, not to have another drink during the rest of the filming. And, amazingly, he hasn’t had a drink since.
In a different interview, he explained that to hear Gottsagen “say that he was disappointed in me probably changed the course of my life.”
“Zack can’t not shoot straight,” he explained, “and bless him for it, ’cause at that moment, I needed a straight shooter who I couldn’t argue with.”
And the friendship has clearly changed the course of his life for the better.
But now, the director of Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde, has opened up about what happened on the set of the movie involving LaBeouf…
Seemingly enough it was about the safety of all the actors, after all.
According to IndieWire, Wilde wanted a younger couple at the center of the movie and immediately thought of Midsommar star Florence Pugh…
And she confessed that she wanted pop star Harry Styles alongside Pugh in the movie, but unfortunately, Styles was touring at the time, so LaBeouf was cast instead.
But there’s more to the tale than just that…
Wilde went ahead and cited that there was a “no a**hole policy” on set and claimed LaBeouf had scheduling conflicts.
It was only later in that year when LaBeouf’s former partner and Honey Boy co-star FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit against the actor claiming s*xual, emotional, and psychological abuse.
This was the indicator that Wilde needed at the time.
“A lot came to light after this happened that really troubled me, in terms of his behavior,” Wilde said.
“For our film, what we really needed was an energy that was incredibly supportive. Particularly with a movie like this, I knew that I was going to be asking Florence to be in very vulnerable situations, and my priority was to make her feel safe and making her feel supportive,” Wilde continued.
“I believe that creating a safe, trusting environment is the best way to get people to do their best work. Ultimately, my responsibility is to the production and to the cast to protect them. That was my job,” she added.
“I find myself just really wishing him health and evolution because I believe in restorative justice,” she concluded.
So it wasn’t a surprise when Wilde confessed her decision of firing LaBeouf from her movie…
“I say this as someone who is such an admirer of his work: His process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions,” Wilde revealed to Variety.
“He has a process that, in some ways, seems to require a combative energy, and I don’t personally believe that is conducive to the best performances,” she added.
But then Styles replaced LaBeouf, as his tour was canceled due to the pandemic, this freed up his schedule and it seems Wilde thanked her lucky stars…
What do you think of LaBeouf being fired?