Once upon a time, Shia LaBeouf was at the height of his career. Then, one day, the fame got to him and all was lost. On one end of the spectrum, we can look at the breakdowns LaBeouf had as a way to find himself as well as bring attention to the fact that celebrities are people too; but on the other end of the spectrum, it may just look like a man acting like a child. Either way, LaBeouf made the decision to seclude himself from society and even announced his “retirement from public life.”
Let us not forget though when he attended the Berlin Film Festival with a paper bag over his head that said “I am not famous anymore.” It was then that LaBeouf made a transition from actor to train wreck. Slowly he’s been working to rebrand himself as an artist. It started in February of 2014 with his five day event #IAMSORRY, where he invited the public to sit alone in a room with him and they had the freedom to interact with him however they chose. When he reflected from that event he stated, “I went from being a celebrity or object to a fellow human,” which sometimes is all a celebrity could ask for. The shenanigans that usually follow when speaking of LaBeouf have subsided for some time which may have allowed him to have much need reflection and the ability to create his next attempt at artistic performance, #AllMyMovies.
Courtesy: Entertainment Weekly
Unlike Shia LaBeouf’s previous endeavors, #AllMyMovies received positive feedback from the public. This latest artistic performance was just that: a performance art piece. At this event, Labeouf once again invited the public to join him in silence, but this time to watch all the movies he’s starred in, free of charge. The event as a whole was more of a time for LaBeouf to reflect on himself and his career than it was for the public to interact with him. The marathon of movies- which he watched in reverse chronological order- began on November 10th at noon and didn’t end until November 12th around 10pm.
While movies such as Lawless and the Transformers series are some of his most notable, this is where he felt his movies started to become subpar. He literally decided to take a nap he said, “Cause I hate myself, not cause I’m tired, but because I’m dying right now.” He couldn’t handle watching the worst version of himself, and while we may have thought those movies were great, LaBeouf said some of them “were unwatchable.” Now, don’t think the whole three days was full of a self-loathing Labeouf; there was a moment he recounts during The Even Stevens Movie. He says, “The Even Stevens Movie was interesting, it’s all of our childhood. It’s mine and yours. It wasn’t just me smiling like that. If you look at the freeze frames, everyone is smiling like ‘wow, I remember Beans.’”
LaBeouf reflected on #AllMyMovies and said, “Coming out of there, it’s the first time I’ve actually felt part of this-it was very humanizing for me. I walked out loving myself.” LaBeouf says that #AllMyMovies helped him find his sense of self. We look forward to future performance art pieces from LaBeouf and hopefully soon he’ll make his way back to the big screen!