The past few weeks have seen Shia LaBeouf consumed in another wave of legal issues due to an outing in New Orleans. While embarking upon a multi-day bar crawl amid Mardi Gras, the 39-year-old actor was arrested after a fight with several other men and charged with two counts of simple battery. After LaBeouf shared a brief initial statement, he spoke out about the incident in an interview that’s since gone viral. Now, one of the star’s former colleagues is weighing in on that chat, and he didn’t mince words when sharing his thoughts.
LaBeouf discussed his latest arrest and his personal life while appearing on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan. The Disturbia alum, who reportedly yelled homophobic slurs at the men he came to blows with, shared some information on the scuffle and said he was to blame. Callaghan also asked LaBeouf if he needed to return to rehab, to which the actor asserted that he didn’t think he needed to. Denying that he had a drinking problem, LaBeouf said a supposed “small-man complex” was to blame for his issues.
Among those who caught wind of the actor’s viral chat with Callaghan was Adam G. Simon, who wrote LaBeouf’s 2015 thriller film, Man Down. In a lengthy X post, Simon called out LaBeouf for doing the interview and opined that he had “clinical narcissism” as opposed to a “Napoleonic complex.” The screenwriter added the following:
Your pain is the center of the universe. Your trauma is the only one that matters. Any dissenting voices get blocked out or pushed out. You got no challenge in your inner circle. All you have are yes men. Your PR game is slick but the performing in public game is slipping. Public interviewer wanting a trending come up gets a call from Shia to play PR clean up. It works everytime. This is a narcissism cupcake sprinkled with a little bit of sociopathy wrapped inside a humble brag for your fans to meme and post about the purity of your Christian devotion, your realness, your street cred.
The Boss Level scribe also accused LaBeouf of being a “master” at “manipulating public opinion” in his favor. Simon went on to share additional thoughts on LaBeouf, with some of the sentiments further referencing the actor’s Catholic faith (which he mentioned multiple times while speaking with Callaghan):
When the shit hits the fan, there is no one that can Houdini, ‘just do it’, their way out of a blast radius like you can. Always on time. Always perfectly executed. That is because people are eager to plant their personal flag of allegiance on a soundbite. On your Christianity. On your acting. On your sobriety. On the one man show that you continuously put on titled, ‘ Shia, the personification of authenticity.’ To all of you in his immediate circle that are enabling this, fans, podcasters, and I will include his publicist and legal team, fuck you.
After alluding to his own personal experiences, Simon seemed to lay out a challenge for his former colleague. He said:
You wanna address all of us publicly so let’s fucking respond to it publicly. In fact, I’ll happily represent everybody that you cant call back, because, strangely, they all have something in common… They are all soft spoken. They all walk on egg shells. They all avoid speaking on it…why is that? I’m sure they would like some semblance of their voices heard rather than consistently seeing and hearing yours trending as the Savior of the common man conveniently after you carpet bomb their lives…but, you know. Your pain. Your trauma trumps all else. Hit me.
Aside from the fight in NOLA, Shia LaBeouf also discussed the state of his relationship with his wife, Mia Goth, and confirmed that they had indeed broken up. However, LaBeouf also claimed he and Goth were on good terms and that they were working to co-parent their 3-year-old daughter. It’s also been alleged, however, that Goth wants LaBeouf to enter rehab. There have also been rumors regarding those who supposedly want to extend assistance to LaBeouf (like Mel Gibson).
When the Borg vs McEnroe star appeared in New Orleans Criminal District Court at the end of February, Judge Simone Levine did order him to go to rehab and ordered him to pay a $100,000 bond. (LaBeouf claimed celebrity friends of his covered the money.) This past weekend, LaBeouf also received another battery charge stemming from an additional participant in that fight and was arrested again.
Shia LaBeouf’s legal team has not provided any formal statements amid this ongoing situation. As for whether others might choose to speak out as Adam G. Simon has, that remains to be seen.
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