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The decision to dump Megan Fox from Transformers 3 underscores the perils of slamming your franchise and filmmakers if you’re a thesp. Promoting Wall Street 2 in Cannes, LaBeouf hasn’t been as recklessly critical as his now former co-star. But Hollywood executives I talked to feel that Shia was disrespectful when he proclaimed publicly (and truthfully) that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull basically sucked even though he starred in it. The 23-year-old did take some responsibility (“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”). But he told reporters that “when you drop the ball, you drop the ball… You can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven. I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this…”
Is this kid now seriously lecturing a directing legend who gave him a shot at movie stardom in DreamWorks’ Disturbia when LaBeouf was known for little more than playing the goofy younger brother in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens? Yes, even though Spielberg is still involved with Transformers 3. And that’s when Whoopi Goldberg on The View yesterday took Shia to the woodshed. Whoopi, who worked with Spielberg on The Color Purple, said: “Really, Shia. Really? How come you [don't] just make a phone call to Steven and discuss it. There’s no class. If he had an issue with Steven, he needed to call Steven. You don’t go public with that. You don’t do it with anybody. It’s rude. The guy gave you a job. And jobs are hard to come by.”
Indeed, actors lucky enough to sign on for tentpoles make a bargain that could hardly be called Faustian. They’re overpaid to star in silly movies whose global grosses allow the actors to make films they really care about. What they’re not supposed to do in return for all that moolah is trash those hits and their directors. Modern-day movie stars like Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Tom Cruise all follow that golden rule. And while George Clooney admitted his short stint as Batman was a failure, he blamed himself and not helmer Joel Schumacher. Executives today have little sympathy for Megan Fox, who bombed in Jennifer’s Body and now has a lot riding on Jonah Hex. And the unfortunate fact, be it sexism or whatever, is that Megan who just plays the girlfriend in Transformers didn’t get a pass and Shia who plays the lead did. But those suits also feel LaBeouf’s comments could potentially hurt his career. Sure, Shia’s and Megan’s candor helps their street cred and makes great copy for the media. And controversy can sell movie tickets. But violating Hollywood protocol is a dangerous game to play. Megan learned that today. Will Shia learn it tomorrow?
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The thing is, Shia was saying what a lot of movie fans were feeling. He has that relatability and if he lies just to make the filmmakers happy then audiences feel more distant from him. Why not let Shia say these things, people will see the movies anyway, but if he is in that position then why can’t he speak for the fans. Esp. since big filmmakers are more likely surrounded by yes-man and accused of being out of touch. As for Whoopi, she is out of touch too. She slammed Disney when she made “Sister Act”, didn’t she? It’s about trying to make the best movie possible. (Not devolving into making something like “Theodore Rex”.) Shia said what a lot of people were thinking, people who wouldn’t be heard by the likes of Spielberg. Because there WERE problems with Tranformers 2 and Indiana Jones IV. Big problems.
Good for audiences because those “bad” movies will be the only ones they’ll have to watch him in.
I doubt that these will be the only movies attributed to Shia’s success. In fact, these movies are the ones hurting his credibility, while giving him the easy box-office success. I’m sure he can survive beyond these roles, which you can see are actually quite underwritten and immature.
I’m sure Shia didn’t seriously think Bay would do this, nor did many people within that circle. Given these circumstances most likely Shia will only recite approved comments about his films moving forward.
There is indeed a heirarchy within the industry, and the talent (whom are most certainly NOT in charge these days) is well aware. Megan unfortunately just got a little full of herself, and too prematurely – which does sometimes happen to the best of us. But, she just happened to piss off the wrong man.
I personally think Shia spoke out after witnessing Megan spout the same sort of “say what you feel” diarrhea of the mouth, and seeing nothing happen to her as a consequence. But again, that was before she was left out of the franchise as a going concern.
This was more than likely Bay making an example out of someone. Most talent, I’m sure after this episode, will watch their mouths moving forward. At least until we somehow return to the days when you go to see movies just for the actors.
All I kept thinking was boy, I bet Ewan McGregor was gnashing his teeth and/or applauding for the torture of having to suffer through playing Obi Wan in what he probably thought would be a role of a lifetime. Good for him for having the professionalism to suck up and not utter a single (at least to my knowledge) disparaging word about that other Lucas abortion.
I don’t really know what to make of Shia’s comments. Freedom of Speech – okay. But it smacks of simple unprofessionalism. He’s right – no argument – on what he has said. But I do think he should have personally talked with Spielberg if he really authentically felt that the man “needs to hear” his crits.
I would be deeply hurt and offended if someone I had worked with publically criticized me rather than coming to me personally about it. And chances are, I would not want to work with that person again.
I don’t recall Whoopi slamming Disney after making Sister Act. She must have liked it since she did a sequel and is producing a theater musical of it too.
I think her main complain twas Shia saying Steven Spielberg “needs to hear this”. If Spielberg needs to hear from you, he’ll call you.
Whoopi has laughed off some of her film decisions (particularly when former costars are guests) and talked about how even an Oscar win doesn’t keep you hot and you need to work for money. She’s never slammed the other people involved with her.
I think many would think twice about working with Shia if they believe he will bring up all who he thinks are failures critically instead of just staying on topic promoting the current movie. An “you win some, you lose some” attitude would be better. Particularly since he’s doing all this to promote Wall Street 2 which got only so-so reviews itself.
I like Shia as an actor, as a person- you win some, you lose some.
I think it’s REMARKABLY sexist of Bay to fire the leading LADY and keep the leading MAN when they BOTH trashed his film. Labeouf is obviously safe whatever he says but on that note, Fox should have stayed, too. I heard that Bay is a sexist egomaniac and I never gave a damn but frankly with this move he proved his haters right.
I’m not fond of Megan Fox’s acting but anyone who says “good riddance, she couldn’t act to save her life etc.” is a mean hypocrite because it is completely obvious that Fox didn’t have any acting to do on this projects, she had to run “pretty” and scream loud. That’s it. And while she was completely unprofessional for making those comments – so was Labeouf – I think it’s refreshing that she didn’t play “Hollywood-nice” and said what she thought. And to be fair considering recent events, she wasn’t far from the truth – Bay SEEMS to be a sexist pig and she was right when she said the role didn’t require any acting.
She could have said what EVERY actresses say in interviews “yeah, I loved him/her, he/she was a sweetheart, we are best friends, he/she is my soulmate blahblahblah and then after the press tour, they never hear from each other ever again and/or they hate each other vehemently from the start”. While I agree that filmmakers deserve respect from actors, respect should ONLY work both ways….and if Fox’s audition included the washing of Bay’s Ferrari, I think respect-wise he got what he deserved.
I thought Jonah Hex would be a major flop but now I REALLY hope it will be a hit – Brolin, Malkovich would deserve it – so she can give the finger to Bay and co. who waited til shooting to tell her to fuck off. Very mean-spirited. I’ve seen on imdb that she had her birthday a few days ago….I really hope Bay’s revenge wasn’t that low to give her the bad news on that day.
Right. I don’t think it’s good news that Megan Fox was fired and Shia has to run scared now. I thought that Fox vs. Bay thing was petty and immature at the time and it come to her being fired. First Skids and Mudflap. Now her.
It’s sexist to fire a chick who badmouthed you to the media?!? WHAAAAAAAAAAT?
Exactly.
Accusations of sexism have no place here, especially when Megan embraced her “role” in both films.
when did Shia trash TransFormers? He trashed Indy4.
And rightfully so. Aliens? Aliens? It took 20 years for them to come up with aliens? That movie had none of the same magic as the first 3. The movie sucked and was just a way to re release another Blu Ray box set.
It’s more sexist to suggest that firing the “leading lady” and not the “leading man” MUST be the result of sexism. Rather than the fact that Shia is clearly the protagonist (Fox is the hero’s girlfriend, not a “leading lady”), and that his comments were far more qualified and positive than hers. He also had some sort of claim to fame without the franchise and has had some success outside of it — Fox hasn’t.
Her comments were worse, she has less stature and success in the industry, and her character is less important in the franchise as a whole. The two situations aren’t akin. Like, at all.
There’s no real comparison between what LaBeouf has said and what Fox said. He threw out some mild criticism of Transformers 2, while she’s pretty much engaged in a personal vendetta with Bay. I can’t believe I’m defending Michael Bay here, but why should he work with someone who holds him in contempt, when there are dozens if not hundreds of actresses out there who can “run pretty and scream loud” just as well as she can?
For all the folks praising LaBoeuf for his candor, it’s not exactly like he’s Ed Norton, here. I remember him doing a lot of pre-release press for Crystal Skull. He wasn’t mentioning any of the things “Steven needs to hear” then. It’s only after fans and critics revolted against the movie that Shia suddenly turned truth-teller. It’s still a suck-up move, just instead of sucking up to the folks who give him work, he’s sucking up to all the fans who think he stars in crappy movies. I’m sure if Wall Street 2 tanks, we’ll all hear from Shia about how clueless Oliver Stone is.
The problem isn’t honesty or dishonesty, it’s accountability. Sure, Shia said he “dropped the ball” on Indy 4, but he was pretty quick to spread the blame, so it doesn’t come off as him taking responsibility for his mistakes, at all. Same thing for Fox’s complaints. Sure, it’s demeaning if she had to wash Bay’s Ferrari (man, does that sound like an awful euphemism) to get the part, but it’s not like she walked away in protest. She did it, and she should take responsibility for that. Sure, her role in the Transformers movies called for no acting, but maybe the fact that more than half her lines were one word with a lot of exclamation points after it should have been a clue she wasn’t being cast as Ophelia in Hamlet.
Nobody forced her to star in a sexist, brainless role, but complaining about Bay is one way of pushing off responsibility for the choices she made with her career. Fortunately for her, she won’t have to endure the agony of working on Transformers 3; there’ll be a line of actresses around the block hoping to wash Bay’s Ferrari (man, does that sound wrong) and take her place.
Hmmmm I’ve heard that Michael Bay has a very long Ferrari – some would say a stretch-model. I wouldn’t mind giving it a wash n’ shine…
Schwwwwiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggggg!!!!!
That’s just disgusting!
If we’re only talking about bad-mouthing, uh, there is a big difference between someone saying, “The director, writers and I underdelivered” and calling the director” Hitler”.
Sexism is rampant, but the bottom line on this story: Transformers is a fantasy for boys (young and old) who fantasize about being the geek who gets the hot chick and the cool car (that happens to be a subservient robot). That is why these films grossed over $1B and The Notebook made $20M.
And Shia was criticizing the project he and his colleagues put out for the fans. He did not personally attack or slander his colleagues as Megan did recently, and has done repeatedly.
It is totally sexist to give her the boot. The chick is always disposable in a Hollywood scenario. It’s a sad fact of this town.
Michael Bay is a sexist guy. He only sleeps with pro’s. He gets away with murder. His movies make money. He gets to be above the law.
Right, because Megan’s role was so pivotal to the animus of the oeuvre. When she did that soliloquy about Diet Coke versus Diet Pepsi? Epic. And when she cradled that dying robot in her arms I could literally feel her heart breaking for ‘ol BeeBee the erstwhile VW Bug.
And when she gave that rousing speech to Optimus Prime’s troops urging them to “unscrew every bolt in the enemy’s manifolds” the entire audience in our theater stood up and cheered for a half hour.
Didn’t the crew of Transformers write a letter about what a brat she was on set? Bay at the time tried to laugh it off but maybe Megan just became too much of a jerk. Her only claims to fame are Transformers and replacing the older daughter in Kelly Ripa’s sitcom.
Shia must get on better with the “little people” of the industry which is probably what kept him in the movie at the end of the day. That and it’s a movie about Sam and giant robots. I can’t even remember her character’s name.
IT’S NOT SEXIST FOR BAY TO FIRE THE LEADING LADY AND NOT THE LEADING MAN. Michael didn’t want to sleep with Shia, so of course he kept him. Meegan? Bring another hottie from Central Casting!
Yep, Michael’s THAT kind of guy.
Let’s face facts: LaBeouf isn’t the leading man of Transformers and Fox wasn’t the leading lady. The lead characters in the first two were Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, and Barricade. The rest were basically supporting cast members to varying degrees.
Just as in the original Transformers animated series (“G1″) and its corresponding movie (1986), the Transformers are the main characters. The humans are there to give it a sense of scale and help humans (the audience) relate to the giant robots.
So really, the actors that matter most for Transformers are the voice actors. Second place would go to people who do stunts or help with the motion capture. Third place goes to the extras. Aside from that, actors just don’t matter in this franchise. Fox didn’t figure that out, and LaBeouf might be next if he doesn’t STFU.
I don’t think it’s sexist at all – she publically called her director “a Hitler” and she expected to work with him again? Ever? That wouldn’t fly in any kind of business.
If you want to work with a pro, you don’t ever call them a Hitler – even if they are.
If you want to build a career, you don’t ever publically call a pro a Hitler – especially if they are.
Shia publically criticized the quality of the projects he was involved in bringing to the screen. Unprofessional. But Megan publically slammed her director’s personality. Professional Suicide.
Shia speaks the truth. I commend him for not simply doing “what’s good for his career”. Much respect.
V
Much respect is something this kid doesn’t have. Did you really need this guy to tell you he didn’t like the movie you didn’t like?
That Indiana Jones movie was SHITE.
SHITE.
SHITE.
I was amazed Spielberg, Lucas et al thought it was ‘good enough’.
Spielberg really needs to sit and pay attention. This might be the first time I had respect for The Shia Pet.
I mean, this is an exceptional case, because that sequel KILLED a beloved character.
It’s nice when someone in Hollywood (Shia) tells the truth. Indy IV was pathetic and ruined what was a near-perfect trilogy. Rather than stroke egos, filmmakers need to hear the truth. They may have made great movies, but they have also made stinkers.
Uh, four films is not a trilogy. The trilogy is still intact.
gosh, aren’t you clever?
HA!
Raiders + Crusade were great, but Temple of Doom was a noisy dud.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was *extremely* awful. I’m glad LaBeouf said it. It’s about time someone involved with that mess did.
Totally agree. Both Shia and Megan’s comments regarding the films were accurate. But, in Megan’s case, she could have expressed it with a bit more tact.
and michael bay is a class act? he can post degrading letter on his website about megan calling dumb and trash and all is fine, if this was the real world he would sued to hell for harassment for providing an unsafe work environment. if my boss posted this up in the breakroom where i work, wow not cool, a settlement would surely be coming. but i guess things work differently in Hollywood.
So the message for today is for young Hollywood to keep their opinions to themselves and just kiss up to everyone.
Bravo to this commenter.
I applaud Shia for his frankness regarding Indiana Jones 4, and for taking some responsibility for the end result.
Most films are collaborative projects comprised by the works of many individuals. If a movie is ultimately deemed a critical failure, why can’t those who were involved call it like it is, even if it means stepping on the toes of their respective bosses? Spielberg is a sacred cow now? So the press can beat him up for making a shit movie, the fans can beat him up, but Shia can’t?
Please…
I’m sorry, is there a job on the planet where publicly trashing your employer won’t get you fired? Please. He should shut up, hit his marks, and be grateful he makes more than some countries.
EXACTLY. Jeez. Does no one else get this?
Where is it okay for you to talk sh*t about your employer and/or their projects to the press?
And once a (disposable) employee does that, why the hell would you want to work with them again?
EXACTLY. Why do so few people on this board get this?
Where is it okay for a (disposable) employee to talk sh*t about their employer and/or their projects, to the press?
And, once the damage is done, why in the hell would that employer want to work with that person again?
How many people here would do that in their everyday jobs? That’s what I thought. So why do so many think it’s “okay” in Hollywood? Because you want to be entertained by catfighting? Is that why? Must be.
You know, in most instances I would agree with you. In fact, in this particular instance I’m not sure I disagree entirely either. That said, sometimes the emperor needs to be told he has no clothes. Eddie Murphy is a perfect example. He might even agree with this. For a while he was the hottest ticket on TV, in movies and in night clubs. Then he surrounded himself with people (employees) who only told him what he wanted to hear and who laughed at all his jokes. By the time he realized what he had done, he wasn’t funny anymore and was near the “has been” door. I think he must have figured this out because the “possies” of 100+ people he used to travel with (on his payroll) are now gone. While his star is not in the stratosphere like it once was, he’s made something of a comeback over the last few years.
The ones who tell the emperor that he “has no new clothes” are the ticket buyers. If the movie fails at the box office, THAT is the true metric for whether or not the film was successful.
Who cares about what the actors think, and how dare they bash the project they agreed to do, and then hope to be picked up for a sequel?
I’m not sure this analogy to Eddie Murphy’s career is appropriate. He did several things to himself that landed him in the toilet – picking up a transvestite on Santa Monica Blvd., cheating on his wife and fathering a child, his involvement in multiple high stakes lawsuits… oh, and did I mention his string of recent box office failures? That would do it. Yep.
No one is saying not to be truthful. You can easily do that privately. They are saying to not blast your employer, who’s responsible for you making millions of dollars to play make believe in front of a blue screen, in public.
Yes, much better they spin their wheels and accomplish nothing with pointless offensive comments.
Maybe it will improve the chances that if Indy V gets made it won’t further degrade the legacy of Indiana Jones.
I think this only feeds into all those shia haters. I happen to really like Shia as an actor but he wouldn’t have the movie career that he has without Steven Spielberg who cast him in every major hit. I don’t think what Shia said was as nearly as bad as Megan Fox’s Hitler comments to Michael Bay, but there is nothing that he said that wasn’t something we were all feeling about indiana jones. I agree that he should have kept it between him and Steven but I don’t think his comments were that damaging. Matthew Goode is another actor who slammed his own movie Leap Year a couple months after it came out, why? Although it’s nice to hear actors comments about their own movies but it just seems in bad taste. I am still a Shia fan.
Ah… Welcome Shia’s reps in the above remark. Story posted at 7am… publicist remarking at 7:22am.
Bad taste by Shia. His remarks may be true, but the classlessness exhibited is evident of the new school.
Not Shia’s rep. Different time zone. Sounds like you worked on Theodore Rex.
Katherine Heigl has been candid all the time, and it hasn’t hurt her career. Of course, I don’t think Heigl is the spawn of Satan, as some do. As for Shia, I’m thrilled with his honesty too. He spoke out truthfully and respectfully. If more celebs did that, maybe Hollywood wouldn’t churn out so many lame cookie cutter films. Plus, I’m pretty sure Spielberg has also admitted to problems with Indy 4.
Pretty sure it did hurt her career hardcore. What was the last movie she was in? The AWFUL Truth?
Plus, everyone thinks she’s a B. I used to think she was hot, but I cannot stand Bs. So she lost me as any sort of fan.
Oh, my poor, dyslexic brain read your first sentence as “Pretty sure it did hurt her hardcore career” and I spilled my coffee!
The Ugly Truth had a $205 million gross against a $35 million budget. She’s obviously mortally wounded.
You do know the difference between gross and net, right? Especially with distributors, marketing, etc. sucking up all that money in between?
And YOU know that the general rule of thumb for break-even point on a picture these days is a gross of roughly three times the negative cost, right? Which in this case means that “The Awful Truth”, in all probability, broke even at the $105 million mark? Of course you do. How silly. Otherwise you’d just be talking out of your ass—oh, wait…
Katherine Heigl made $300,000 for her role in Knocked Up. She made $12M for her role in Killers, due out this summer. I wish my career was “hurting” like Heigl’s.
I stand corrected. My perception was that her career was on the downhill. I didn’t know she was in KILLERS or that anyone like AWFUL TRUTH.
shia CAN”T act.
Wasn’t the rumor that Spielberg and Ford referred to Crystal Skull as a “piece of shit” when they were filming?
I don’t think anyone involved doesn’t know it wasn’t a bad movie. Except Lucas of course but he’s beyond help.
That’s on set if it’s true and not to the media. Doesn’t matter if Steven agrees or not, pretty sure this comment pissed him off. It would piss me off, if you can’t tell.
And you aren’t Stephen Spielberg.
And you… are?
Finally someone calling Shia on his bs. He has the same foot in mouth disease the Megan does. I don’t know if it is his ballooning ego or just plain stupidity but some of the weird stuff he said last year and how people reacted should’ve taught him to be more considerate with his words. I don’t care if the movies sucked, saying publicly how craptacular Indiana Jones and Transformers 2 were is not cool. Especially cause he’s no saint even without slagging on the roles that made him a star, he’s lucky everyone has worked around his bs antics so far.
There are millions, literally MILLIONS of people that would give up a kidney to be actors in a big movie, let alone make money for it.
Shia should STFU. He doesn’t have the excuse of being somewhat insane like Megan Fox. You don’t get a pass to crap on the people that made you until you’re old and gray and doing your memoirs. Being ‘real’ is a laugh – he’s supposed to be AN ACTOR.
Being an actor is a job. At your job, you’re supposed to be professional. That INCLUDES doing your best to sell the product, even if you personally feel that it wasn’t good. You can’t expect everything you do to be gold, all actors end up in flops sometimes (or even a lot) and turn in crap performances on occasion, but if you want to keep working to have the chance to have that one awesome movie, don’t act like a fricking moron and insult your bosses, who are friends with EVERYBODY ELSE in the industry.
I agree with spamslots here. Really, who the heck doesn’t know that you don’t go throwing mud on the suits or the players that are giving you the roles? At least, not if you want a job.
Frankly, let the critics & the audience review movies. I really don’t want to hear an actor’s opinion about a director, nor the director’s opinion of a bad actor.
We know who the pricks, the divas, and the assholes are without anyone telling us. And yes, the audience can usually tell when a movie is bad, even if the gross is high.
While I totally see your point about not biting the hand that feeds you, I feel Shia spoke from the heart, and likely gained/kept fans because of it. Whether he’ll ever be allowed to work again, however, is another story. There’s an unwritten rule in Hwood, it seems: never ever criticize Spielberg, even if the end results are Minority Report, A.I., War of the Worlds, or Indy 4.
HEY, I loved Minority Report.
Yeah, I found Minority Report to be an intriguing film and very imaginative. I don’t care for Tom Cruise but he did really well in it.
I don’t see how Shia “keeps” fans by badmouthing movies he had previously asked for their money on. More like “crying wolf” every time he says one of his movies is good, you end up wondering if he’ll change his tune a year later.
Put yourself in Megan and Shia’s shoes. You had the payday for TF2 sure but you want a career and everywhere you go you get told you were in the antichrist of movies for a whole year. I’m sure they are trying to communicate that they want to, are capable of, and look forward to making movies that are respected and embraced by movie fans.
Is it really that hard to figure out?
Even so many of the negative reactions to Skull were irrational and calculated. We are at least a generation and half completely removed from any familiarity with the sensibility that informs the character or those movies and crucifying people like Lucas and Spielberg is practically an official internet sport. Shia wouldn’t feel compelled to say this stuff without the internet dwellers’ commentary feeding the prevailing wisdom.
So, it’s not his fault at all. People bad mouth you, you throw your friends under the bus. I hope he gets a lot more crap for this behavior than he did for TRANSFORMERS. Who really criticizes the guy? I mean, he was the luckiest guy on the planet until Sam Worthington showed up and people gave him crap for that, but who cares? How does saying your movie sucked make you look ANY better? Once you sign the contract, you give up your right to badmouth the project, unless they really mistreat you.
Megan and Shia have been given the opportunity of a lifetime with these roles. It has afforded them the freedom to go follow up with indy movies and get the street cred they may feel they need. It’s not acceptable or smart to publicly trash the people who’ve given them their start.
Bad filmmaking is bad filmmaking, it doesn’t matter what generation you’re from. I don’t care how old you are, elements of Indy IV were just badly done, whether you’re on the internet or not. I know people who complained about it and they don’t go on the net looking to make trouble. They just wanted to go to the movies and have fun. There’s no need to make excuses that only ignorant children will like these offerings from Spielberg and Lucas. Their careers progress, with highs and lows, esp. if they’ve been around a long time, like Scorcese, Coppola, Allen etc.
There’s no parallel between what Megan said and what Shia said.
Megan’s attacks were personal and petty. What Shia said might have broken protocol, but it was thoughtful and diplomatically put. Megan attacked Michael Bay as a person, Shia criticized the finished product and the collective work of a film’s crew.
Manners are really in decline in people think this behavior is okay. Never thought I’d say it, but Whoopi’s right. You just don’t bad mouth people like this. I know he’s young, but this is so tacky. Who would want to work with him, now? If nothing else, you don’t do this for the same reason you don’t answer a question in a job interview about why you left your last job with an answer about how terrible everyone was there and how they had no idea what to do and were terribly managed. The interviewer is going to think, “Man, I’m not hiring this guy. If he gets fired or quits, he’ll trash me all over town!
This is called career suicide or at least career Russian Roulette.
Well played, Monsieur Mouse. Well played.
Actors and actresses without publicist-padded OPINIONS OF THEIR OWN?! Being real people, sharing real thoughts?! How DARE they!!
I didn’t think he was being rude at all. He loves Spielberg. Good for him, for being true to who he is. I hope Shia and Spielberg go on to make many great movies together.
You really want to know actors’ opinions? I would strongly advise against that. Just my experience. Hahaha. Just the thought of it cracks me up.
“Actors and actresses without publicist-padded OPINIONS OF THEIR OWN?! Being real people, sharing real thoughts?! How DARE they!!”
Yes, such bravery…years after the films were released.
Imagine if Shia had the balls to say this stuff when he was accepting private jet rides around the globe to tell the masses how “rad” TRANSFORMERS 2 and INDY 4 were!
There’s nothing to celebrate here. It’s a puss move to knock a film after you’ve spent the better part of a year promoting it.
Save the bile for the autobiography, Shia. Or at least reveal your fangs when the moment is ripe.
I don’t know why nikkis got such a hard on to trash actors these days. Yes, megan fox sucks. Yes, shia laboooof’s got a big mouth. Yes, the “secondary” cast of twilight asked for and got more moolah. But nikkis incredibly anti-actor verbage makes me think she’s gone corporate and now is sucking the studio cock.
Oh yeah!
Shia has balls…so what? Trashing sthe director publicly isn’t very classy, but who really cares??
Excuse me — there’s some sexist double standard in play here? I’d respectfully suggest that if Shia had compared arguably the highest profile and most influential Jewish man in Hollywood to HITLER (like Fox did to Michael Bay), his career would be in the same crapper as Mel Gibson’s.
I’m speaking completely without any prejudice simply based on facts but why would you single out that he is jewish ? I mean seriously…on that imaginary “Hollywood’s most influential” list of filmmakers who ISN’T jewish ?
The problem with Shia knocking Spielberg is twofold. Everything he’s practically ever done has been handed to him on a silver platter by Steve (who loves him for some odd reason) and if the script was so wack for Indy 4, why do it? Oh, my bad… a ton of greenbacks right?
Look, you can take a stand and turn down big paydays, but if you do take them, I don’t think it’s right to turn around and make these comments after the fact. Also doing it in the media is strange because now you’re publically embarrassing someone.
Maybe Indy wasn’t the end all be all, but I had a lot of fun watching it. More than I can say for TRANSFORMERS, which I fell asleep watching in the theater. Of course, that was when I was working twelve hour days as a location assistant on a horror movie out in the woods. Still, this guy is a punk. It’s pretty hilarious to see he and Megan Fox implode. Maybe some people went to TRANSFORMERS for Megan Fox, but who the heck goes to these movies to see Shia LeBouf?!? I would wager he annoys more people than he entertains. The robots are the real draw for these flicks.
This is one of the funniest true articles I’ve read in a long while. I was cracking up! Good job, Nikki! You’ve come back strong from that article the other day about some guy posting nonsense on Twitter. Cheers!
Wow, I was reading through all these comments and was really disheartened. Thank goodness someone else liked Indy IV. Yeah, it had some bad moments, but so what? Overall it was very, very enjoyable. People these days are just too bitter and cynical, I say.
I enjoyed Indy4, it wasn’t as good as the first or third but maybe better than the second. Really, Indy should just stick to actual mythology, it works best.
But I didn’t hate Indy4 and saw no real reason for Shia to bring it up when he is promoting yet another sequel to an 80s concept in Wall Street 2.
If one takes a dump in his own pants – is it Shia’s duty to blame Steven. No, you shut up and wipe your own ass and not let shit come out of your mouth.
Aah, millionaires bashing billionaires. My favorite sport.
Shia is 23. If he continues to have a successful career, no one will care about his honesty
And I’d appreciate it if more actors would admit they did what they could but could not “save” a film.
That’s all we’d ever hear. Please do not open that Pandora’s Box.