Shia LaBeouf

About

Shia LaBeouf is an American actor best known for his role as Louis Stevens in Disney's children’s comedy show Even Stevens and Sam Witwicky in Michael Bay's Transformers film adaptations. In 2013, the actor gained much notoriety after being accused of plagiarizing American cartoonist Daniel Clowes’ 2007 comic Justin M. Damiano in his 2013 short film Howard Cantour.com.

Acting Career

Shia LaBeouf began his career in the late ‘90s with guest roles on TV series such as Caroline in the City and Suddenly Susan. In 2000, he was given his first lead role opportunity as class clown teenager Louis Stevens on the Disney children's comedy TV series Even Stevens, for which he was awarded a Daytime Emmy Award. In 2003, LaBeouf made his Hollywood lead role debut as the protagonist Stanley Yelnats in Disney's comedy adventure film Holes (2003), followed by another lead role as Kale Brecht in the teen trhiller slasher film Disturbia (2007), before landing his breakout lead role in 2007 as Sam Witwicky in Michael Bay's feature film adaptations of Transformers. In 2013, LeBeouf starred in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and Nymphomaniac: Vol. II.

Online History

Howard Cantour.com

On May 18th, 2012, LaBeouf’s short film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical acclaims and positive reviews, followed by its online premiere on Vimeo on December 16th, 2013.

#IAMSORRY

On February 11th, 2014, LaBeouf opened an art exhibit titled "#IAMSORRY," in which participants were told to choose an object off a table containing a whip, a copy of the novel The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes, a bottle of cologne, a bowl of Hershey's Kisses, a ukulele, a bottle of whiskey, a bowl of containing angry tweets directed at LaBeouf, a pair of pliers and an Optimus Prime action figure (shown below).

Visitors were then led into a room with LaBeouf seated at a table wearing a suit and a paper bag over his head with the words "I am not famous anymore" written on the front. That day, several Twitter users posted photographs outside the building, along with their reactions to the exhibit itself.

Also on February 11th, The Daily Beast^[10] published an article about the art project, which highlighted a photograph of LaBeouf crying at a table in front of the bowl containing tweets written on slips of paper (shown below). In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about the art exhibit, including Vice,^[11] The Daily Dot,^[12] UpRoxx,^[13] BuzzFeed,^[14] Time,^[15] NY Daily News^[16] and TMZ.^[17]

#ALLMYMOVIES

At noon on November 10th, 2015, Labeouf began a 72-hour nonstop marathon viewing of every movie he has starred in at the Angelika Film Center in New York City. Dubbed #ALLMYMOVIES^[16] and curated in collaboration with artists Luke Turner and Nastja Sade Rönkkö, who have previously worked with Labeouf on his #IAMSORRY performance in 2014, the project is livestreamed in real-time on the media-sharing platform Newhive.^[17]

#TAKEMEANYWHERE

On May 23rd, 2016, Shia Labeouf announced the launch of #TAKEMEANYWHERE^[20], a new hashtag-based interactive art project in which the celebrity actor, along with his collaborating artists Luke Turner and Nastja Sade Rönkkö, embark on a month-long hitchhike journey across the country by sharing their GPS coordinates via Twitter on their official account @thecampaignbook^[18] and inviting anyone to pick them up and take them anywhere they want.

During the journey, the trio will also share photographs and videos of the places they visit and people they meet along their way via Twitter, a documentation process that will culminate into a film to be screened at the Finnish Institute in London and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado upon the completion of the project. The route of their journey can be tracked in real-time through a website created in partnership with VICE.^[19]

Controversies

Orphans Dispute with Alec Baldwin

On December 15th, 2012, LaBeouf tweeted a poster for the play Orphans, which showed he would star in the upcoming Broadway production with actor Alec Baldwin.

On February 18th, 2013, he sent out a series of tweets,^[12] which have been since deleted, which included e-mails between LaBeouf, playwright Lyle Kessler, Alec Baldwin, and actor Tom Sturridge that seemed to portray a conflict between Baldwin and LaBeouf. He continued to tweet out the e-mails through February 21st. On February 20th, the plays producers announced^[13] LeBeouf would be leaving the show, citing "creative differences."

Howard Cantour.com Plagiarism

Shia LaBeouf's Plagiarism Controversy refers to the online backlash surrounding Howard Cantour.com, a short film about an internet film critic who faces an internal conflict as he contemplates whether to write a positive or negative review for an upcoming film. Upon its online premiere in December 2013, the actor-turned-director was met with accusations of plagiarizing American cartoonist Daniel Clowes' 2007 comic Justin M. Damiano, including direct quotes, dialogues and the narrative structure.

Arrest in New York City

On June 26th, 2014, LaBeouf was arrested^[8] outside New York's Studio 54 theater for being disruptive and disorderly, with his disruptive actions including smoking and yelling, during a performance of the musical Cabaret. The same day composer Benj Pasek^[10] sent out a tweet,^[9] which has since been deleted, describing LaBeouf's arrest.

Also on June 27th, LaBeouf was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and criminal trespass before being released on his own recognizance, with a court date set for July 24th. The same day TMZ^[11] published a post which alleged LaBeouf had chased and fought with a homeless man hours before his arrest.

Freestyle Rap Video

On June 28th, 2015, Facebook^[14] user Corey James uploaded a video of Labeouf performing a freestyle rap in a circle of people standing outdoors. The same day, the Everday Instrumentals YouTube channel reuploaded the video (shown below).

Also on June 28th, MC Pri the Honeydark submitted a post to Instagram^[15] claiming LaBeouf had stolen lines from the 1999 hip hop song "Perfectionist" by the group Anomolies (shown below). Several rhymes uttered by LaBeouf can be heard at 49 seconds into the song.

"I reckon you want more of that rare commodity / the quality is what it's gotta be / and my philosophy is much farther than what your eyes can see."

Fandom

As of June 2014, LaBeouf's Facebook page^[3] has gained over 250,000 likes and his Twitter account^[4] has gained over 160,000 followers. Fan run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the actor include fuck-yeah-shia-labeouf^[5], mrlabeouf^[6] and shialabeoufworld.^[7] As of June 2014, there are over 1,000 fan art submissions tagged Shia LaBeouf on DeviantArt. ^[2]

Related Memes

Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf

Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf is a comedy song portraying LaBeouf as a cannibal. The song inspired several photoshopped images and animated GIFs of LeBeouf after it began circulating on the microblogging site Tumblr in April 2012.

On March 3rd, 2012, musician Rob Cantor^[11], a member of the indie rock group Tally Hall^[19], uploaded a song titled “Shia LaBeouf” to his SoundCloud^[1] page named after the actor. The song detailed a terrifying encounter with a blood-soaked cannibal LaBeouf in the woods in the manner of in an early 1900s radio drama.

Shia LaBeouf’s Intense Motivational Speech

Shia LaBeouf’s Intense Motivational Speech is a video in which LaBeouf is shown intensely shouting inspirational messages to the camera while gesturing bizarrely. The clip, filmed in front of a green screen, inspired numerous parodies, remixes and reaction videos.

Personal Life

Shia LaBeouf was born on June 11th, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. He attended two high schools, Alexander Hamilton High School and 32nd Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles.

Search Interest

External References