Shia LaBeouf Vowed to Never Make Another Big Studio Film After Doing ‘Indiana Jones’
Actor Shia LaBeouf has always been very candid about his feelings towards his Indiana Jones film. His experience on the sequel was so off-putting that the actor wanted to walk away from big-budget blockbuster projects completely.
Shia LaBeouf vowed to never make another big studio film again after ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’
LaBeouf didn’t feel that the Indiana Jones film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull lived up to expectations. Although it did well at the box office, the Indiana Jones sequel experienced mixed reviews from critics. LaBeouf was a part of the camp that believed the Spielberg-directed feature wasn’t exactly the franchise’s best effort. And he felt partially responsible.
“I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished,” LaBeouf once told the LA Times.
LaBeouf felt that his performance ultimately couldn’t elevate Crystal Skull to a level most would be satisfied with.
“You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg, who directed]. But the actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault. Simple,” LaBeouf said.
According to IMDb, LaBeouf also vowed to never make a big studio film ever again after his comments. After Crystal Skull, his filmography indicated that he’d only done two franchise films with the Transformers sequels. Since then, LaBeouf has mostly starred in smaller projects.
Harrison Ford once responded to Shia LaBeouf’s comments about ‘dropping the ball’
LaBeouf shared that Ford told him in a private conversation that he wasn’t happy with Crystal Skull, either. Still, Ford didn’t agree with LaBeouf expressing his feelings about Crystal Skull to the public.
“I think I told him he was a f***ing idiot. As an actor, I think it’s my obligation to support the film without making a complete ass of myself,” Ford once told Detail (via Female First). “Shia is ambitious, attentive and talented – and he’s learning how to deal with a situation which is very unique and difficult.”
LaBeouf eventually regretted disparaging the Indiana Jones sequel, especially after realizing that he’d disappointed his idol.
“[Ford[ told me there’s a time to be a human being and have an opinion, and there’s a time to sell cars,” explained LaBeouf. “It brought me freedom, but it also killed my spirits because this was a dude I looked up to like a sensei.”
Shia LaBeouf once named the only movie he did with Steven Spielberg that he enjoyed
Perhaps LaBeouf was more disappointed with his experience with Spielberg than anything else. LaBeouf was excited about working with the Oscar-winner on Crystal Skull. But he confided that he was let down by how corporate the Spielberg feature turned out to be.
“You get there, and you realize you’re not meeting the Spielberg you dream of,” LaBeouf once told Variety. “You’re meeting a different Spielberg, who is in a different stage in his career. He’s less a director than he is a f***ing company.”
LaBeouf felt that his work was limited by the possible artistic restrictions on Spielberg’s set.
“Spielberg’s sets are very different,” LaBeouf continued. “Everything has been so meticulously planned. You got to get this line out in 37 seconds. You do that for five years, you start to feel like not knowing what you’re doing for a living.”
In the several LaBeouf projects Spielberg served as a producer, LaBeouf only enjoyed one film they collaborated on together.
“The only movie that I liked that we made together was Transformers one,” he said.
