Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. It's been interesting and a bit disconcerting to me to see Shia LaBeouf so maligned in the talkbacks. I personally think the dude's a good actor who hasn't phoned in a performance yet, even in the horrible Transformers 2.
Interviewing the guy in person or sitting down with him in informal, yet still kind of on-the-job ways he always struck me as level headed, passionate about his work, and strangely humble.
Go back and re-read my interview with him on the set of Transformers (which is here). It's 45 minutes of him being amazingly honest about Michael Bay as a director and his unsuspected landing a leading man/action star role, which he felt was 1000% owed to Lady Luck and not anything he brought to the table.
This very same humble and harsh truth tone can be found in LaBeouf's recent Cannes discussion regarding another popular '80s movie he's sequelizing, Wall Street 2.
Here's where he's going to win a lot of respect from you guys, I think. Honesty is hard to come by in this business. It's not that actors and directors and producers are all bad people trying to steal your money, but there's a fear of burning bridges, ruining careers and even being sued. It's standard practice to have, essentially, a no "shit-talking" clause in contracts nowadays. No joke.
So when LaBeouf openly talks about how disappointing Indiana Jones was for him, and puts himself in front of the bullet like he does, taking a lot of personal blame for the reason why it didn't work, it really grabbed my attention.
I saw the full story on the LA Times Blog and will pull some of the best quotes from LaBeouf for you.
On Indiana Jones as it relates to Wall Street 2:
"I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished," LaBeouf said, explaining that this upped the ante for him before he began shooting the "Wall Street" sequel. "If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me."
On where the blame lies:
"You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg, who directed]. But the actor's job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn't do it. So that's my fault. Simple."
He's not alone in thinking Indy 4 missed the mark. Harrison Ford isn't happy either:
"We [Harrison Ford and LaBeouf] had major discussions. He wasn't happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn't universally accepted."
On what he thinks Spielberg's reaction is going to be when he hears about this frank discussion:
"I'll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I'm not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he's a genius, and he's given me my whole life. He's done so much great work that there's no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball."
Make sure you read the whole article by Steven Zeitchik over at the LA Times Blog.
"But he needs to hear this," is probably the best thing about this whole conversation. A close second is hearing that Ford wasn't terribly happy with the movie either.
I found this refreshing, especially after having just re-watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (back to back with the original three films no less). I think LaBeouf was a bit too harsh on himself. He's genuinely trying to make his character work and you can feel that effort... mostly because the rest of the movie seems so... disinterested. I know that doesn't make any logical sense, a movie feeling disinterested in itself, but that's what I think describes the film best.
Bravo to Mr. LaBeouf for being an honest voice out there, consequences be damned. I think he probably just gained a few fans out of this interview.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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