Speaker A
The child star curse is a story we have heard time and time again. The young star discovers their innate gift of performing, or they have an image that perfectly represents a producer's vision. But children are naive and are very susceptible to mistreatment. Then the parents might abuse their power over the child. They might feel entitled to their money, or sometimes they are just jealous that their child is more successful than they ever were. Shia LaBeouf's story follows a similar narrative, but recently we found out that it might all be a lie, a sensationalized narrative to not only make money but try and protect him from his wrongdoings. Shia's downward spiral is different than most because, to this day, we have no idea what is real and what is a distraction from the truth. Stay hydrated. Shia was the son of two starving artists. Shayna Sade and Jeffrey LaBeouf could never find an audience for their work, sending them straight into poverty. As a family, his mother would end up selling fabrics and jewelry in a poverty-stricken area of Echo Park, Los Angeles, while his father, a former Vietnam veteran, would sell hot dogs and perform as a street clown to get by. On top of their financial struggles, Shia's father was a convicted sex offender and a heroin addict, which was far from the ideal role model that Shia needed growing up as an only child. As if life wasn't hard enough, his father was admitted into rehab when Shia was just nine years old, leaving him and his mother extremely vulnerable. While living with his mother in a Los Angeles motel, Shia overheard a man rape her, not being able to do anything about it at such a young age. This tragedy caused a great deal of anger to build in his young soul. To this day, Shia sleeps with a gun under his pillow because of the incident, stating, "I've always thought somebody was coming." In his whole life, his parents were too prideful to accept food stamps and welfare. Shia knew early on that he would need to find a way to make money for him and his family or steal to get what he wanted. His first run-in with the law occurred in 1995 when he was only nine years old, getting caught attempting to steal a pair of Nike Cortez shoes. Then, a couple years later, he also got caught trying to steal a Game Boy. His parents knew he needed a creative outlet to express himself and keep him out of trouble, so Shia turned to stand-up comedy, which was a perfect fit for a kid known as the class clown amongst his peers. Performing at local LA comedy clubs at the age of 10, he instantly stood out thanks to his edgy adult sense of humor, going on stage and picking apart the drunk men and women in the audience, often starting his set with, "Hey, [expletive], it's time for some jokes." Shia thrived in stand-up, but it wasn't going to pay his family's bills or get him the sneakers he wanted. He needed to think bigger, and that's exactly what he did. On a trip to Malibu with his dad in 1996, Shia met a kid wearing expensive clothing that he could only dream of affording. Shia asked him, "What do you do?" which led to the kid responding with, "I'm an actor," and that was all Shia needed to hear. Shia began looking up talent agencies in the Yellow Pages, calling them and pretending he was his own manager. Although they weren't buying the shtick, one of the agents was charmed enough, and she took a shot on Shia and signed him, quickly propelling his career and helping him earn small roles in commercials. Winter, very tough. Yeah, you kids are eating lots and lots of Oreos. Yeah, what's that? He also landed some minor roles in Freaks and Geeks and The X-Files. Somehow, he found a way to make it in the spotlight that his parents always desired, with no formal acting or training whatsoever. After grinding smaller roles for a few years, he would finally get his big breakthrough in the year 2000, landing the lead role in the show Even Stevens on the Disney Channel. And you're not shy, right? Somewhere for the Even Stevens audition, you scared the other actors who were waiting to audition by telling them, "I wanted it, got it wrapped up, it's mine. I wanted it so bad." I would like walk around, I was like, "Listen, man, I don't know what you're auditioning for. I already got the part," you know, and I did. I eventually got it. Shia played the role as Louis, who was viewed as immature, rude, lazy, selfish, carefree, and extremely mischievous. He concocts elaborate schemes and inventions to make his life easier. The show, as well as Lizzie McGuire, were the first two Disney Channel live-action shows to pave the way for the iconic early 2000s Disney Channel hits. Even Stevens was a smash success. Shia would go on to win an Emmy Award for his role as Louis Stevens in 2003 and became a household name thanks to the show, with directors in the industry comparing his acting potential to stars like Tom Hanks and Gene Wilder. The show would have gone on longer than three seasons, but Disney famously has the 65-episode rule, where they will cancel a show no matter what after 65 episodes. Despite Shia having this big breakthrough, his life was far from glamorous. He had to live closer to where the show was being filmed, so he left his mother's house to go live with his father. He says his father was abusive, both mentally and physically. One time, Jeffrey allegedly held a gun to Shia's head in a Vietnam flashback. On top of that, the two lived in a $45 per night motel while he was filming Even Stevens. Disney Channel was known to pay their cast pennies compared to how popular the shows were, but whatever Shia was getting paid, he was using it to keep his family above water. He was merely surviving. Riding the success of Even Stevens, in April of 2003, Shia's career would continue to reach new heights with the release of the film Holes. The film generated $71.4 million worldwide and would open the door for Shia to blockbuster roles on the big screen. He started popping up as a tertiary character in a big film every year: Dumb and Dumber, Charlie's Angels, I, Robot, Constantine, Bobby. This led to him earning lead roles in The Greatest Game Ever Played and Disturbia, which grossed $118 million in worldwide box office. But one role was about to take him to superstar heights: Transformers in 2007. Transformers grossed $700 million in global box office. For those that don't know, American action films will often get worldwide praise and send those actors into lifetime A-list status. Shia did two of these films in one year, the second being Indiana Jones, which did nearly $800 million global box office. Transformers 2 did over $800 million in global box office. Shia was on top of the world. His life appeared to be perfect in the public eye. He was beloved by everyone. He successfully saved his family from generational poverty and, by 21, was arguably set for life. But unfortunately for Shia, his past was beginning to creep up on him. LaBeouf was arrested and spent two days in jail after attempting to stab a neighbor in Van Nuys. In the very same year that Shia was hitting the red carpet with Megan Fox for the premiere of Transformers, he would spend two nights in jail for attacking his neighbor with a deadly weapon. Anger and alcoholism, a result of his troubled childhood, was starting to take over his life. Arrested in November of 2007 for misdemeanor criminal trespassing while refusing to leave a Walgreens, he described the incident: "My logic was off, to say the least." Again, "I'm on the sauce." By "on the sauce," he means alcohol, his go-to vice that would become a big problem later on. He was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Hollywood in the summer of 2008, and in 2011, he got involved in a brawl outside of a Vancouver bar. He was slowly starting to derail. Like many of the child stars that came before him, he earned $15 million for his role in the third Transformers movie. Money was no longer the motivation for him. He didn't need to grind anymore. He decided to step away from the franchise and the millions of dollars it would have continued to produce. He started to chase roles that were more artistic and character-
