Shia LaBeouf Once Believed That There Was No Such Thing as Female Method Actors

Some actors are prepared and willing to go to great lengths as method actors to nail a particular role. But actor Shia LaBeouf has since stopped going method for roles, going so far as to say the idea of it embarrasses him.

Shia LaBeouf’s method acting once included having his teeth removed

LaBeouf is no stranger to method acting. But there are some stars who feel that LaBeouf might have taken his method a bit too far in certain roles. One of his most well-known approaches to method acting was for his part in David Ayer’s Fury. There, LaBeouf once revealed he intentionally had a tooth removed for the story.

“I got it done by some guy in Reseda next to a Radio Shack and he didn’t ask too many questions,” LaBeouf once said on Jimmy Kimmel Live(via IndieWire.)

LaBeouf also got into an altercation with the cast to further strengthen the bond between his castmates.

“Oh, yeah, every day,” LaBeouf said. “It worked. It really bonded us. You can only get so much out in a conversation [so] with a bunch of boys in that setting, fighting is really intimate. I’m not saying we [didn’t] get mad at each other, but we love each other and it dies when we leave.”

Why Shia LaBeouf quit method acting

Shia LaBeouf’s method acting hasn’t always served him well. Talking to Interview magazine, LaBeouf revealed how his method acting had him butting heads with Alec Baldwin for a play. This would later cost him that role.

“My whole goal was to intimidate the f*** out of Baldwin. That was the role. And it wasn’t going to be fake. I wanted him to be scared. …So I went about doing that for three weeks of rehearsal,” LaBeouf explained.

In a much later interview with Variety, LaBeouf revealed he had a change of heart about method acting. Not only was it something he lost interest in, but he now looked down at the process of going method.

“The word is getting embarrassing,” he said. “You don’t hear about female method actors. The whole thing has turned into weird, false masculinity s***.”

Shia LaBeouf’s ‘Lawless’ Co-Star Called Her Lawyer Because of LaBeouf’s method acting

Shia LaBeouf’s method acting was once so intense that one of his co-stars almost walked away from their movie. The film in question was 2012’s Lawless, which featured other actors like Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Guy Pearce. Actor Mia Wasikowska was also among this cast of actors. But for Wasikowska, working with the Even Stevens alum while he was method acting proved to be an intimidating situation.

“She was calling her attorney, like, ‘Get me the f*** out of here,’” LaBeouf told NY Daily News about his co-star (via IndieWire).

The Transformers star chalked his co-star’s reaction up to her being unaccustomed to dealing with method actors who were willing to push their performances.

“Mia was ready to walk away from the movie. I was really pretty aggressive about it, and not in any kind of weird, strange way, but I don’t think she had ever experienced anything like that,” LaBeouf added.

Wasikowska would later confirm these reports with EntertainmentWise.

“It was all true, absolutely, yep,” she said of the incident.