Shia Labeouf Says He Thought His Career ‘Was Over’ After 2017 Arrest, Signed up for Peace Corps

Shia LaBeouf reflected on his 2017 arrest this week in a new interview with Jimmy Kimmel. The actor was frank about the low-point in his life, saying he believed his career was “over.” LaBeouf even said that he signed up for the Peace Corps in preparation for leaving public life behind.

LaBeouf was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday to promote his new film, Honey Boy. The movie is written by LaBeouf and is based on his own turbulent relationship with his father as a child. However, even with this creative achievement fresh in his mind, LaBeouf was dwelling on the biggest mistakes of his adult life.

“I wasn’t planning on making a movie. I thought the actor thing was over,” LaBeouf said, referencing his 2017 arrest and his subsequent stay in rehab. “I signed up to go to the Peace Corps and then went into this rehab facility and was there for two months.”

LaBeouf was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, in July of 2017 while filming The Peanut Butter Falcon. He was charged with public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and obstruction.

Body cam footage at the time showed that LaBeouf screaming at police, including one strange encounter with an African-American officer where he said: “You’ve got a president who doesn’t give a s— about you. And you’re stuck in a police force that doesn’t give a f— about you. So you want to arrest what, white people who give a f—?”

LaBeouf went on to a stay in rehab and a 12-step program. Last year, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with PTSD during his treatment, and in a profile for Esquire, fans got an idea of why. The actor had a troubled, unstable and sometimes violent home life as a child.

This week, LaBeouf said that his therapists had advised him to write as a way of processing his trauma. What began as an exercise in self-improvement grew into the screenplay for Honey Boy.

“I’d written this thing and plans changed. When I got out I wasn’t going to do the peace corps no more,” he said. “They were very peaceful about it.”

Honey Boy is already getting a lot of buzz, and LaBeouf is being praised for his confessional work. On Sunday, he accepted an award for the script at the Hollywood Film Awards, where he thanked the police who had arrested him for propelling him in this direction.

“I want to thank the police officer who arrested me in Georgia for changing my life,” he said, then thanking “my therapist and my sponsor for saving my life” and his parents “for giving me life.”

Honey Boy is is directed by Alma Har’el, and stars LaBeouf along with other stars like Martin Starr, Ntasha Lyonne and FKA Twigs. The movie is in theaters now.