After making a name for himself in the big budget Transformers series, actor Shia LaBeouf is looking to break the shackles of the studio system in order to work on the type of small, indie films that allow artists to truly express themselves.
"I'm done," LaBeouf stated in a candid interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "There's no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist.” He continued, "You give Terrence Malick a movie like Transformers, and he's f--ed. There's no way for him to exist in that world."
Rarely do actors come out so vehemently against the Hollywood system, but after being shuffled from one high-profile gig to another for the better part of a decade, it seems like LaBeouf has grown tired of the bright lights and inherent greed of show business.
And when talking about Voltage Pictures, the small studio behind his upcoming movies The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and The Company You Keep, LaBeouf said, “These dudes are a miracle. They give you the money, and they trust you -- [unlike the studios, which] give you the money, then get on a plane and come to the set and stick a finger up your ass and chase you around for five months."
LaBeouf did say that he regrets slamming director Steven Spielberg’s shoddy work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in recent years, though. But he did recall one disheartening conversation with Spielberg, "He told me there's a time to be a human being and have an opinion, and there's a time to sell cars."
And that’s the exact mentality that LaBeouf is looking to break away from. You can check LaBeouf out in the indie crime drama, Lawless, when it hits theaters on August 31.
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
