When it rains it pours for Shia LaBeouf.
Just as the embattled “Transformers” star revealed that he was contemplating suicide ahead of converting to Catholicism, he found himself embroiled in a war of words with his former director Olivia Wilde.
In a cover story published Wednesday, Wilde told Variety that she fired LeBeouf from her new film, “Don’t Worry Darling,” because his creative process “was not conducive to the ethos” she demands on her productions.
However, in a follow-up story on Friday, Variety reported that LaBeouf denied Wilde’s claim and asserted that he “quit the film due to lack of rehearsal time.” He cited text messages he allegedly sent to Wilde in August 2020, before she replaced him with her now-boyfriend, Harry Styles. LaBeouf even forwarded to Variety two emails he says he sent to the director this week to express his disappointment with her latest remarks.
In Friday’s story, Variety published one of the emails that LaBeouf, 36, sent to Wilde, 38, on Wednesday. In it, LaBeouf characterized Wilde’s quotes about him as “attractive clickbait, as I am still persona-non-grata and may remain as such for the rest of my life,” and said he was “confused” about Wilde’s version of what happened.
“You and I both know the reasons for my exit,” he wrote in his email to Wilde, which LaBeouf then shared with Variety on Thursday. “I quit your film because your actors & I couldn’t find time to rehearse.”
The actor also shared with Variety a video that Wilde allegedly sent him on Aug. 19, 2020, days after he dropped out of the movie. The clip, which has leaked on Twitter, shows the “Booksmart” director telling LaBeouf that she is “not ready to give up on this yet,” alluding to their collaboration on the film.
Wilde also seems to reference some tension between LaBeouf and Florence Pugh, who stars as Alice, the wife of Styles’ Jack, in “Don’t Worry Darling.”
“I, too, am heartbroken, and I want to figure this out,” Wilde says in the video. “I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo [Pugh], and I want to know if you’re open to giving this a shot with me, with us. If she really commits, if she really puts her mind and heart into it at this point and if you guys can make peace — and I respect your point of view, I respect hers — but if you guys can do it, what do you think? Is there hope? Will you let me know?”
Pugh has yet to speak out on the latest “Don’t Worry Darling” drama, but many social media users have nothing but support for the “Midsommar” actor amid Wilde and LaBeouf’s back-and-forth.
LaBeouf’s email to Wilde also included several new details about his professional and personal life. He said Wilde’s account of why he left the movie will make it “that much harder for me to crawl out of the hole I have dug with my behaviors, to be able to provide for my family.”
“Firing me never took place, Olivia. And while I fully understand the attractiveness of pushing that story because of the current social landscape, the social currency that brings. It is not the truth,” he reportedly wrote. “So I am humbly asking, as a person with an eye toward making things right, that you correct the narrative as best you can. I hope none of this negatively [affects] you, and that your film is successful in all the ways you want it to be.”
“The Peanut Butter Falcon” star also revealed in the email that he is 627 days sober and has reunited with his wife, Mia, as they raise Isabel, their 5-month-old daughter.
LaBeouf officially departed the project in September 2020, due to a “scheduling conflict,” according to Deadline. Months after his “Don’t Worry Darling” exit, the actor was accused of “relentless” physical, sexual and psychological abuse by former partner and “Honey Boy” co-star FKA Twigs.
A representative for Wilde did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ request for comment.
In a separate forum, LaBeouf opened up about the changes he underwent after facing several years of public-relations crises, including other legal woes. Setting his “life on fire” eventually led him to Catholicism while he was working on the film “Padre Pio,” a biopic about the Italian priest Francesco Forgione, who was canonized in 2002.
He spoke to Bishop Robert Barron, the former Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and founder of the Word on Fire ministry, about landing the role for director Abel Ferrara ‘sfilm when he was at the lowest point in his life and career, even contemplating suicide. La Beouf credits the role with saving him.
“I had a gun on the table. I didn’t want be alive anymore when all of this happened, OK. Shame like I had never experienced before,” LaBeouf told Barron.
He also addressed some of the “disgusting, depraved” allegations against him, such as that he was abusive to women, was shooting dogs and willingly giving women sexually transmitted diseases.
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