THB Headline: A Shia LaBeouf Interview

This is just a wide open suggestion… that I feel strongly about.

I’m not suggesting how you should feel about Shia LaBeouf. I am not taking a position for or against him or Olivia Wilde.

What I am suggesting is that if you want to see a documentation of a person in the midst of trying desperately to change his life, this interview is worth your time. And not just the 16-minute YouTube version, but the whole 2-hour version, available at Patreon after a sign-up for $5 a month.

Shia LaBeouf selling himself as Mr. Good Guy is not what you will find here. What you will find is human who has a real sense of what damage he is capable of, to others and to himself, fighting to find a way to live in the world while keeping it all in perspective. Even as he is explaining - with what I believe to be complete sincerity - choices that he is trying to make, he is also falling in and out of performance… in exactly the way he is explaining that he is desperate to grow past.

In the discussion, Bernthal also exposes some of his own history and others who have struggled, which I both appreciate and am a little uncomfortable with, given the “anonymous” part of Anonymous programs. Full Disclosure: I have never been in a 12-step program myself, but I have a number of close relationships with people who have, successfully and otherwise.

This is the roughly 15-minute YouTube version of the conversation with Jon Bernthal.

I also watched a free hour and 20 minute long discussion between LaBeouf and Bishop Barron after the The Real Ones interview. This is the source being used to gossip about LaBeouf' apparently taking on Catholicism as his religion of choice.

A lot of the same ground is covered, though LaBeouf is controlling his language and drama levels with the Bishop, understandably.

For me, this stands as confirmation of this part of LaBeouf’s journey and some clarification.

Shia LaBeouf is not close to being done with his journey… but I do believe in his effort and applaud his 600+ days of sobriety. That sobriety is the foundation of both making amends for the past and moving forward in his life in a healthy way that doesn’t damage others.

LaBeouf admits many of his failures in the The Real Ones interview. For those who know the industry and his history on film, truths about events on many films and with many actors and filmmakers are made apparent.

It is rare, celebrity or not, to see this kind of session with someone working through it in real life in real time. It is, in and of itself, a gift.

I hope LaBeouf keeps growing and finding balance and is able to live in the world and in the industry without forever carrying the millstone of his own creation arounf his neck. I don’t know if he will be able to, especially staying in the business. The fact that this is a public conversation is - and he suggest the same in both interviews - tempting Pandora’s Box to open for him yet again.

Until tomorrow…