Shia LaBeouf

February 11, 4:04 PMCelebrity Profile ExaminerAndy Williamson

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SHIA LaBEOUF

It’s not easy being a child actor.  We’ve seen too many cautionary tales of young performers trying vainly to make the jump into adult roles.  We cry when they die (Brad Renfro, Dana Plato), watch with morbid fascination when they flounder (Corey Feldman, Corey Haim) and cheer when they succeed (Ron Howard, Jodie Foster).  If there is any former child actor whose talent and charisma have already helped him make this transition a hugely successful one, it is Shia LaBeouf.

Shia Saide LaBeouf (pronounced SHY-uh luh-BUFF) was born on June 11th, 1986 in Los Angeles, California.  His father, Jeffrey LaBeouf, was a Cajun circus clown (only in America, folks) -- his mother, Shayna Saide was a Jewish-American ballerina.  Both are, to use Shia’s term, “hippies.”  Regarding his unusual name, Shia, during a 2007 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, told Dave that, “Shia is Hebrew for Gift from God.  LaBeouf is French for beef.  Hence the phrase: Thank God for beef.”  (Buh-dum-chee.)

Perhaps following a trail forged by his grandfather (a comedian), Shia often performed stand-up routines for his neighborhood.  He later took his act to local nightclubs (including Pasadena’s Ice House), where his often racy material gave him the appeal of having “a 50-year-old mouth on a 10-year-old kid.”  After a friend of his acted on an episode of the CBS series Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, Shia decided he wanted to act.  Searching the Yellow Pages for agents, he found one, auditioned by doing a routine where he represented himself, and was signed.

Three months after finding representation, Shia was hired by Disney to star in a show called Even Stevens -- the show would run from 1999-2003 and eventually earn Shia a Daytime Emmy Award.  He also appeared in the Disney Channel’s Tru Confessions, as a mentally-challenged young man appearing in his sister’s documentary.

In 2003, Shia was cast in the film Holes, opposite Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight.  It would be this film where director Steven Spielberg first took notice of Shia, whom he would later say, “reminded me of a young Tom Hanks.”

SHIA LaBEOUF

Small roles followed in such films as Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, I, Robot, and Constantine.  In 2005, Shia received great notices for his role in Disney’s The Greatest Game Ever Played -- the film, based on a true story, had Shia playing Francis Ouimet, a poor golf player who won the 1913 U.S. Open Championship.  Later roles in Bobby and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints helped Shia shake off his teen heartthrob image.

In 2007’s Disturbia, Shia proved that he was not only growing up, but was capable of carrying a film as a lead.  The film, an update (of sorts) of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, involved a young man, stuck at home under ‘house arrest,’ who believes he sees his neighbor kill somebody.  Shia won critical raves as “the scrappy kid next door” who was "fast becoming the best young actor in Hollywood" and with this role was getting “his star ticket decisively punched.”  The $20 million film was a smash hit, earning over $117 million domestically.

Also in 2007 (a banner year for the actor), Shia starred alongside Megan Fox in the Steven Spielberg-produced, Michael Bay-directed Transformers -- a live-action update of the 80’s animated phenomenon.  The movie, which was considered a dubious investment by many before its release, eventually earned over $700 million dollar worldwide.  Spielberg is crazy all right ... like a fox.

Having taken quite a shine to Shia both personally and professionally, Spielberg cast Shia in 2008’s looooong-awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Shia played Mutt Williams (aka Henry Jones III).  Having grown up watching the Indy films with his father, Shia was staggered by his good fortune in earning this role.  The film, which was both passionately loved and hated, made over $786 million.  (Personally, I loved it.)

That same year, Shia starred in Eagle Eye, a thriller directed by his Disturbia director, D.J. Caruso.  While critical reaction was mixed, the film grossed nearly $178 million worldwide.

SHIA LaBEOUF AS MUTT WILLIAMS - INDY IV

Shia has had a few bogus run-ins with the law -- most of which turned out to be “misunderstandings.”  Arrested for smoking cigarettes on the sidewalk?  Please.  Arrested for refusing to leave a Walgreens?  Are you kidding?  Shia did have an infamous car accident in July of 2008, where his hand was severely injured.  The other driver was eventually charged with running a red light.  Shia was not charged in the incident, but his license was suspended for one year for his refusal to take a breathalyzer test.

In 2009, Shia starred in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  While the film was unfairly slammed by critics (to put it mildly), it went on to earn a staggering $831 million worldwide.

Shia lives by himself in Burbank, California.  He considers Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Jodie Foster, and John Turturro to be his “inspirations.”  Shia also has stated that while he is not a devoutly practicing Jew, he has a "personal relationship with God that happens to work within the confines of Judaism.”

Up next: Wall Street 2 - Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Shia LaBeouf Quotes:

On what it's like to be a celebrity: “I'll tell you when I become one.”

Regarding what type of girls he likes: “I like the dark, mysterious, maybe even gothic type girls.  They have to have a good personality, too.  I'm very picky.”

“I got to grow up in a situation where drugs were demonic.  To watch your dad go through heroin withdrawal is something that would keep you from doing any of that yourself.”

“I'm not an Adonis, that's for damn sure.  I've never really thought of myself that way, and it doesn't matter to me.  My favorite actors aren't Adonises.  Dustin Hoffman is a flawed-looking man; he's amazing to me.  Tom Hanks is flawed-looking; people love him.  Same with Gene Hackman.”

"Clubs are so lame.  Nobody even dances at these clubs.  They stand around and get drunk and they schmooze.  There is no enjoyment factor.  You get so many invites ... partying has never interested me.  My dad was a drug addict.  There's something about watching your dad go through heroin withdrawal when you're 11.  It's not interesting anymore.  I'm not individualizing this.  There are lots of kids that deal with this.  I'm an '80s baby; that's what was going on.”

“I've been fortunate enough to work with Harrison on [Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the] Crystal Skull, and I can honestly say it is a dream come true.  He's a man's man.  And he's incredible because he make movies even better, because we love him as much as Indy hates snakes, and because he's captain of the goddamn Millennium Falcon!”

SHIA LaBEOUF

“Talent is funny.  I've always looked at talent like what the hell does talent really mean?  Talent is to actors what luck is to card players.  It's not really anything, it's just a fictitious word that people have created and labeled things.  Talent is like you know I never really believed in talent, I believed in drive and determination and preparation but talent is sort of like luck.  I wouldn't want to think of myself as talented it doesn't seem like there's any validity in that.  I like to think of myself as an ordinary man with extra ordinary determination.  That's it.”

Regarding Megan Fox: “She is a very attractive girl.  Very attractive.  And she's a very close friend.  But it hasn't been a romantic thing, because you're trying to respect the work environment.  You don't push anything.  And with sex and romance, things can become so convoluted so fast.”

"There's no patriotism.  There's selfishness.  It's the movie Wall Street.  Pure selfishness.  Greed is good.  It really happened.  People don't look at that character, Gordon Gekko, and see an enemy.  They look at him like they look at Scarface, a kind of role model.  'Hell, yeah.  That's the guy!  That's the superman!'  Well, that's our pop culture.  That's its values.”

“My generation will actually be the first generation that is tamer than the one that came before it, and it will probably be poorer; less fun and less money.  It's ridiculous.  In my parents' generation, rebellion was pop culture.  It's not anymore.  You can see it in something as simple as where their music was at and where ours is now.  If you look at our Billboard Top 100, a lot of those songs on there are from Christian country artists.  A lot of rappers, too, are very Christian.  The fact that religion is even still talked about is kind of wild to me.  I think my generation understands it, but they are too selfish to let it matter.”

SHIA LaBEOUF

“I come from hippies.  My dad was a wandering dude recovering from the war in Vietnam.  And my mom, before she met him, had a head shop in Brooklyn.  Bob Dylan used to come in and smoke weed.  All her furniture hung upside-down from the ceiling.  She was out of her mind.  It was the 1970s.”

“Actors live dependent on being validated by other people's opinions.  I don't understand what it is I do that people want.  I don't know what an actor does.  I have no credentials.  I don't know what I'm doing.  To my mind, talent doesn't really exist.  Talent is like a card player's luck.  It is motivation, ambition, and luck.  It's just a drive to be the best.  I think acting is a con game.”

“I know I'm one of the luckiest dudes in America right now.  I have a great house.  My parents don't have to work.  I've got money.  I'm famous.  But it could all change, man.  It could go away.  You never know.”

“Most actors on most days don't think they're worthy.  I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it's a God-sized hole.  If I knew, I'd fill it, and I'd be on my way.”

“Sometimes I feel I'm living a meaningless life and I get frightened.”