Shia LaBeouf on his movies live stream: ‘I took a nap coz I hate myself’

He said watching Transformers 2 was him 'going through a crisis'

Shia LaBeouf has discussed the rollercoaster of emotion that was the live stream of him watching his entire oeuvre, which it seems he found exhilarating, humbling and occasionally mortifying.

LaBeouf sat in a small theater at New York’s Angelika Film Center for three days straight for the stunt, watching all of his films in reverse order.

He was initially worried that people would throw popcorn at him or “light [his] hair on fire”, but it seems the actor-turned-installation artist ended up bonding with the audience (the screening was open to the public for free).

“All I want to do is be liked,” he told New Hive. “…You just don’t want anyone to hate you. I walked out loving myself. Not in some grandiose, you’re f*cking awesome way, but in like, you’re a part of a community. You’re part of this human thing. You’re in this human thing.”

The Even Stevens Movie proved an enjoyable watch for LaBeouf.

It wasn’t just me smilling like that,” he said. “If you look at the freeze frames, everyone is smiling like, wow, I remember Beans. I remember that stupid-ass song. We were all looking at our yearbooks together and we’re all in the yearbook.”

But things got a bit dark during the Transformers series.

Shia catches some Z's during Transformers 2

“When the movies started getting sh*t and they knew that I felt it too,” he explained. “It was the shared secret that we all had… not just because I’m in it… I’m in the same boat as you, I’m a viewer in this and this is hard for me to watch too.

“In fact, I’m gonna go take a nap cause I hate myself, not cause I’m tired, but because I’m dying right now. And nobody had a problem with that.”

LaBeouf took a nap on the floor during Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and then another one in his chair for Transformers 2.

“Transformers 2, they could feel when I sunk in my seat,” he said. “That’s not a performative thing. That’s me going through some kind of crisis.”

The live stream was hugely popular, and he does’t quite know what this means yet.

“I can’t articulate how big this was. I don’t even know yet. All I know is I feel the weight of it,” he mused.