Shia LaBeouf

Spotlight By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

You may not have heard of Shia LaBeouf two months ago, but you've certainly heard of him now. The just-barely 21-year-old actor had the lead role in the surprise spring hit Disturbia; he lent his voice to the computer-animated Surfs Up, playing the lead role; and now he's hitting the big screen yet again in the surefire summer blockbuster Transformers. And again, he's the lead role - at least, the lead human role.

"You don't even know the magnitude when you first get the part," LaBeouf says. "You don't even really know what you're talking about. It's just all this hypothetical stuff, you know, and then you just start seeing this stuff, I mean, now I've seen the movie, and it's just something to deal with. It's weird."

In person, LaBeouf has just the kind of excitable, charming personality that you'd expect from a young guy who suddenly finds himself on top of the world. Luckily he also has a keen sense of himself, and knows how fragile stardom can be. When asked how big he thinks Transformers will be, he actually downplays it. "Who knows what it is. Nobody knows. Movie Gods are funny. Sometimes things happen, and it doesn't work out."

Even though he's still relatively new to Hollywood, he's already been around long enough to know that first hand. LaBeouf got his start in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, which ran until 2003. That year, he got his big movie break playing the lead in the Walden Media adaptation of Holes. The flick turned out to be a hit, grossing 67 million dollars in the US. What followed were a few supporting roles in big action movies (I, Robot and Constantine) and some parts in minor movies that disappeared quickly (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Bobby).

"Contracts mean nothing if movies don't succeed," LaBeouf continues, warning that talk of a sequel is still premature. "We were all tied in for Constantine contracts and that just didn't happen. Same with I, Robot. Things like that happen. So if the movie isn't successful, there won't be a sequel, and if it is, then we're all here again. I think it's more of a business decision than an artistic one, I think artistically everyone who's involved would love to do another one. That's [screenwriters] Orci and Kurtzman, the whole cast, I mean, all of us. But if it doesn't make any sense for Paramount, we won't be making another one. If it's successful, yeah."

It's mentioned that Orci said he didn't want to do another one. LaBeouf laughs. "He says he's done' Yeah, I bet."

In Transformers, LaBeouf plays Sam, a nervous, downtrodden teenager whose life mildly changes when he comes into possession of a car that can morph into the giant Transformer nicknamed Bumblebee. "Look, I'm not playing the Elephant Man. So there's that," he says. "My big thing was like, just understanding objectives, and maintaining neurosis. Just keeping it at 11. Everything's amped. It's just a super-amped character. Sam is just neurosis. That's the key to him. That's just the whole thing. So if you maintain that, it's something you just got to focus on. And it's a big thing, you know, when you're in the middle of a ballet with these robots, the movement, thinking about it, it can be tough, but it's not supremely hard."

The set could also get pretty dangerous sometimes. Of injuries, LaBeouf says, "Everyone got something. I got a scar on my ribs...One of these Navy SEALS we have tore his ACL. People just got injured."

Being an excitable young adult in the prime of his life, LaBeouf has other things on his mind besides just endless questions about Transformers. "There's other things I've started focusing on that isn't business. Like, dating is all new. So that's become, like, a major priority for me in my life," he says. "It's funny, but it's not funny, it's for real, you know'"

He quickly backs away from the topic -- "We're not going that route. No, I'm just saying there's other things to focus on." -- but finds himself coming back to it soon enough. He can be at times disarmingly honest and winkingly overconfident, sometimes both at once. Take what he says about his co-star and love interest in the film, Megan Fox: "Dude, I'm in to her," he says good-naturedly. "What do you want' I'm into Megan. Like, what do you want me to say. That's the way it was the whole time we were filming. Immense attraction. You know' On my part, for real."

Ever the savvy businessman, though, his point turns out to be that his attraction to Fox helped the film. "It comes across on camera, and there's a lot of heart to it. It's a good thing. When it's for real you don't have to conjure stuff up. You know' But you maintain the distance so you can keep it, like, that freshness. Seriously."

As for his real dating life, he mentions he had previously been in a relationship for a while, but otherwise, he keeps the details to a minimum. "I'm pretty smoothe. I get haiku poems all prepared. I'm so slick." He does, however, offer a bit of advice that directly correlates to his movie. "Chicks dig the car' I think that's a bunch of garbage, I don't think chicks dig the car. I don't think chicks care about the car."

Almost as a defense mechanism, he downplays his movie career when asked about the bigger picture. "I don't know, it's been fun for what it's been, and this year's been crazy, and if I don't make another movie ever again, then that's cool too. It's just all a fun thing, and I'm working with cool people. This isn't like -- it's not that serious."

Of course, he is making another movie, one that just so happens to be the fourth Indiana Jones flick. Good luck if you can get him to talk about it, though. "I can't tell you anything about it dude," he says. Not even a little hint' "You guys are so smart that you'd figure it out."

With that kind of charm coupled with his self-awareness (of his fitness, he remarks, "I'm cool being cut, I just don't want to get big -- plus you lose your vulnerability if you're big"), it stands to reason that we'll be hearing about LaBeouf for years to come. When asked if there's any pressure, he grins almost shyly and shrugs. "Ah, whatever man. What am I gonna do."