Shia LaBeouf made his return to the public eye recently, adding to the drama around Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling. Amid reported tension with star Florence Pugh, LaBeouf’s comments on his exit from the film and the differences in details compared to Wilde’s account grabbed some headlines. Then came the video featuring Wilde trying to keep LaBeouf on board the film amid his scandals, complicating things even more.
LaBeouf was initially cast in the role that eventually would go to Harry Styles, with Wilde saying the actor was fired amid his alleged sexual misconduct. Texts and the video shared by LaBeouf counter that claim, with the actor adding that he quit the film.
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His final comment on the matter has seemingly come out following the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival and after Wilde called the situation “nuanced” in a Vanity Fair chat, also wishing him the best in his continued recovery. For LaBeouf, the situation is wrapped up.
“It is what it is,” LaBeouf told The Hollywood Reporter. “Every blessing to her and her film.”
The 36-year-old is also making major life changes, partly inspired by his next film, Padre Pio from director Abel Ferrara. LaBeouf plays the lead, a Franciscan Capuchin monk in Italy who becomes well known after allegedly experiencing stigmata — scars or wounds that connect to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The film experience and his search for an “undefined higher power” led the actor to adopt Catholicism, receiving support from Mel Gibson.
The recent loss of his mother also helped to facilitate LaBeouf’s change in faith, losing her back in August at the age of 80 due to heart failure. “My mother was full of fear in her last moments: asking the doctor what this tube was and what that machine did. She was frantic. She was deeply interested in God and spirituality her whole life, but she didn’t know him,” the actor shares. “Hence her last moments. Her greatest gift to me was to promote, in her dying, the necessity of a relationship with God. Not an interest, not just a belief, but a relationship built on proof as tangible as a hug. Her last gift to me was the ultimate persuasion for faith. She was a good girl. She was loved by many and known by too few. God bless you, Momma.”
