Shia LaBeouf is looking back—and owning up—when it comes to his former feud with Alec Baldwin, admitting his own "fractured little weak ego" played a major role in the fallout.
In a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter, the Transformers star opened up about the tension that brewed between him and Baldwin back in 2013 during rehearsals for a stage play, where Baldwin stepped in last-minute to replace none other than Al Pacino.
LaBeouf, 38, revealed that he had poured two years of intense preparation into the role, working under the assumption that he’d be sharing the stage with Pacino.
So, when Baldwin arrived instead, things didn’t exactly go smoothly. “By the time Baldwin got there, it was almost unfair,” Shia admitted.
“He’s dealing with both my fractured little weak ego, right? 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.”
And yes, the room got heated. “That got contentious in the room,” Shia shared. “Then he got competitive.”
Turns out, their acting styles couldn’t have been more different.
“I’d be off book, he’d be on book, and he didn’t want me to look at him be off book,” LaBeouf said, pointing out how tough it made rehearsals.
“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].”
LaBeouf admitted he was “kind of heartbroken” after building the entire character with Pacino in mind.
Ultimately, Shia dropped out of the play altogether, but he and Baldwin didn’t stay on bad terms forever. In a full-circle moment, LaBeouf ended up taking an NYU acting class taught by Baldwin himself.
“Me and him are good because he’s gone through a lot. I’ve gone through a lot,” Shia said.
“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.”
Reflecting on what drove the discord, LaBeouf didn’t hold back.
“Fear will make you move different. I found it came from having absolutely no spiritual life. It made me a piece of s--t. Not a nice guy.”
