Abel Ferrara casts Shia LaBeouf in new movie amid FKA Twigs abuse allegations
LaBeouf was accused, eight months ago, of sexual battery and assault by former romantic partner FKA Twigs
Film News Shia LaBeouf
In the eight months since he was accused of sexual battery and abuse by his former romantic partner, musician Tahliah “FKA Twigs” Barnett, Shia LaBeouf’s acting resumé has been decidedly empty. LaBeouf—who was enjoying a bit of a career resurgence at the time, off of the strength of his semi-autobiographical Honey Boy—was subsequently fired from Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, and parted ways with his managers at CAA, after Barnett accused him of “relentless abuse” during their relationship, suing him for “sexual battery, assault, and infliction of mental distress.”
At the time, LaBeouf indicated that he would be seeking inpatient treatment for his various issues, notably alcohol abuse, and would be stepping away from acting for a time. (His responses to the suit, filtered mostly through letters to The New York Times, denied many of Barnett’s claims, but also framed much of his behavior in terms of addiction.) Now, though, it sounds like LaBeouf has decided that he’s ready to end that sabbatical, having been cast in the central role of Abel Ferrara’s new film about Italian saint Padre Pio.
This is per a recent interview Ferrara gave to Variety, in which the veteran independent director stated that LaBeouf had just come aboard the project, with no mention made (by Ferrara) of the recent allegations against the actor. (As a long-time outsider from the Hollywood system, responsible for films including The Addiction and Funeral, and, most recently, the Willem Dafoe-starring Tommaso, it’s not wholly surprising, if still disappointing, to see Ferrara apparently court LaBeouf for the part.) Per Ferrara, LaBeouf will play Padre Pio, an Italian monk who lived from 1887 to 1968, and who allegedly experienced stigmata.
In other, less dispiriting news: Barnett is currently working on her third studio album, a follow-up to 2019's Magdalene. No current release date is set, although Barnett has said she hopes to release the album in 2021.
52 Comments
Ferrara has filmed people actually shooting heroin on camera, so one wouldn’t expect him to have stringent criteria for the kind of people he’ll work with.
Yeah and he strikes me as a real eccentric guy who lives in a completely different universe, one possibly created by Charles Bukowski. His drunken interview on Conan was memorable, he’s like the character at the old man bar Tom Waits has spent decades pretending to be.
Conan did not like that guy. He has told stories…nameless, but if you knew the show you knew who he was talking about.
That’s a simplistic reading of Tom Waits in particular because he moved away from that persona and themes in the 80s but also because he’s played with many other personas and themes before and since. Also, he’s been sober since the early 90s. He’s far more interesting and talented than Bukowski.
Greatest guest ever
Comparing someone with a disease (addiction) to someone who is accused of sexual battery is a pretty low.
There are plenty of people in Hollywood who do drugs. But usually not on camera.
Caddy shack
A dude who exploits addiction for their movie sounds like a guy who doesn’t care if their star is an abuser, though. Think that’s the point.
Magdalene is an amazing album.
Just wanted to say that.
Mamma Mia, it’s Pappa Pio!
It does sound like a new oven baked sandwich at Papa John’s.
Abel Ferrara AND Shia LaBeouf are making a movie together!? I’m exhausted already.
Scripted by James Franco.(jk. I don’t know who wrote it.)
Who knew Abel Ferarra was an asshole? Oh wait…everybody.
Good. Bring back the great Kevin Spacey too. LaBouf is one of the modern greats. This crap only happens is the currently spineless U.S. which seems to be run by kindergarten teachers. Americans can’t separate the art from the artist. And they’re alone in that fact.
There used to be a surprising amount of bizarre Padre Pio ‘merch’ in Italian souvenir shops, with this chubby, beatific little man happily displaying his stigmata as if he’d been using a cookie cutter the wrong way up.
I don’t know, FKA twigs allegations–that he was controlling, forced her to have sex when she didn’t want to, verbally abusive–sound like every relationship I’ve ever had. I mean, that’s what happens in relationships–you can sue over that?
Uh, what?
Is this boomer humor?
I mean, I’ve sweet talked my wife into having sex when she wasn’t really in the mood and vice-versa but I’ve never forced her…
Fuckin’ yikes.
Is it NOT like that for other people?
Yep. Cancellation is definitely a thing. Yes sir. And you’re an enemy of free speech and due process if you doubt the existence of cancel culture.For. Fucks. Sake.
I’m pretty happy with Suicide Squad so maybe sometimes it nets a cool positive?
Gunn wasn’t cancelled. As evidenced BY Suicide Squad.There’s news out this week about Gina Carano producing and starring in a revenge thriller written by industry vet Eric Red. But I don’t know how since she was canceled by those dastardly SJWs.Bill Cosby is planning a comedy tour.I mean… How many more victims of cancel culture have to keep living their lives free of the kinds of burdens they put on others before we put our foot down? It’s not right! They deserve the second and third and fourth chances they already had!
I’m not sure I follow you now, I thought the Gunn thing was kind of a neat consequence of the cancel culture, but I don’t get where you are going with Gina carano and Bill Cosby. Gina Carano just kept making these tweets that were like conservatives are like the Jews and it’s just wierd and of course Disney was like see ya later. Then Bill Cosby, he’s just a criminal. I don’t know whether you are pro free speech or anti cancel culture or just here to write stuff. Anyways, I think it’s real and it’s confusing reading allegations and just picking sides based on headline gossip.
I’m of the opinion that cancel culture doesn’t exist. What idiots *call* cancel culture is just consequences and/or boycotting. The use of social media has made it *seem* like a New Thing but it isn’t. Gunn made stupid, shitty edgelord comments in a public forum years prior and Disney said “Nope!” That isn’t “cancel culture”, that’s consequences. It also seemed like maybe an overreaction, particularly given the context of an asshole weaponizing those past comments in reaction to Gunn’s contemporary sociopolitical stances. Context does matter, imo. My point was that when he got fired by Disney he was *immediately* headhunted by Warners. So what got cancelled? Certainly not his career.Carano? “Cancelled”. Except no, immediately made a deal with Shapiro’s new production shingle.Cosby? Arrested! Well surely he’s been cancelled, right? He got arrested for his shit! But no, here he is planning a comedy tour. And while I highly doubt he’ll sell out like he used to I guarantee he’ll still have audiences.“cancel culture” is buzzword voodoo bullshit. It’s a scare tactic word to let bad actors feel justified in getting defensive about their malfeasance. Sadly even people who have made minor mistakes sometimes glom onto the term because of defensiveness. (There is for sure a streak of purity politics among progressive and SJW folks. We should be less eager to wield a hammer of judgment. But often the subjects of that judgment need to just take the hit or shrug it off because it is generally a *good thing* to hold people accountable.)
Thanks for clearing all that up for me 🙄.
You’re welcome 🙄.
Ya know I think you might be wrong about this cancel culture stuff man.
LEBOWSKIOPINION.GIF
I think you’re out of your element here
Beam me up, Stanley.
“I’m of the opinion that cancel culture doesn’t exist.”A counterexample: Lauren Wolfe fired from the New York Times:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/25/lauren-wolfe-new-york-times-editor-fired-biden-tweetBut you don’t get endless talk show appearances from people like Lauren Wolfe crying about how they don’t get any talk show appearances.
I once had a bashful open face sandwich in my capable Italian sports car.Shy Au Jus Boeuf in an Able Ferrari….I know. I’ll see myself out.
Before you go, please tell us how long you spent working on that one…
Less time than I should have.
Oh dear – a man, bleeding from his whatever…
I really love and respect Ferrara, and that may be coloring my judgement on this (indeed, it almost certainly is) but it’s not inconceivable to me that he would largely unaware of such concerns, and it’s not inconceivable to me that, given the nature of how is work is financed, produced and ultimately distributed, he may view himself as outside the ethical framework that might ordinarily require somebody to part ways with a disgraced celebrity.
I don’t offer that as an excuse, or a justification, or conversely a condemnation. I just want to identify the possibility that, qualitiatively, Ferrara opting to work with this man may be different to, say, this man continuing to find work within the Hollywood system.
But that’s not really the point of the article. Yeah, it is throwing a bit of shade at Ferrara but mostly it’s about Shia making a big PR show of contrition and substance rehabilitation but almost immediately accepting yet more attention and money in a starring role. Ferrara *deserves* some side-eye. Shia deserves to be ousted from film. Possibly also arrested or committed to long-term psychiatric care or in-patient rehabilitation. Acting only fucking ENABLES that guy. It is bad for him and seems to be bad for whoever is in his orbit.
Well, the headline foregrounds Ferrara’s actions, places them ‘amid’ the LaBeouf allegations, the final paragraph sources the entirety of the article’s content to a Ferrara interview, and it describes Ferrara’s casting decision as “disappointing” and it also attributes him the motive of “courting” LaBeouf.
So I’m not quite sure how you reached the conclusion that Ferrara was incidental to the story given that almost exactly half of the article is about him, his new project, his decisions and his ostensible character, but more power to you, because in any case I was just offering a thought on Ferrara, it doesn’t get any more or less pertinent by the fact that the “point” of the article may have been missed. It’s either me responding to the substance of the article, or me responding to an incidental passing detail in the article, and, in either case… who cares?
Be honest. It’s three large paragraphs, of which two are *entirely* about Shia. Then a short fourth hyping FKA Twigs’ impending album. That it is critical of Ferrara’s decision is true. That you have admitted to a bias in your own post is also true.I care that you’re being defensive of a favored artist in an article that is largely critical of that artist’s subject, not really the artist *himself*. But sure, you do you.
uh… why do you care about that, exactly? From my perspective, I chose an aspect of the article to respond to, and then responded to that. I’m not really sure what it is that you’re even calling me out on.
I suppose that’s a fair question on reflection.Your response is a defense of Ferrara. That defense suggests that either Hughes is wrong in his analysis or correct but in some way unfair. I don’t believe either of those positions are true. However you feel about Ferrara, the criticism is, in my view, relatively mild and entirely fair. Particularly in light of the harsher criticism of Shia.Having said that, I see how my own response could be taken as defensive of Hughes. I’ll admit that I see the AV Club writers (and Kotaku as well) as being frequently unfairly maligned (especially by older commenters from the pre-Kinja AVC days, who seem awfully acidic to me).I’ll also admit I don’t have any personal attachment to Ferrara as a filmmaker. If this was about Sam Raimi or Richard LaGravenese (sp?) or the Coens etc maybe I’d feel differently. Thankfully none of the filmmakers I care about are hiring Shia LaBoeuf. (Though I’m not 100% sure on the Franco timeline of accusations vs his role in Raimi’s Oz movie)
Hang on – did you read my whole post? What about the bit where I said:“I don’t offer that as an excuse, or a justification, or conversely a condemnation. I just want to identify the possibility that, qualitiatively, Ferrara opting to work with this man may be different to, say, this man continuing to find work within the Hollywood system”
I wasn’t offering a defense of Ferrara – for the record I would very much prefer it if he shitcanned LaBeouf – I was, as I said at the time, offering the suggestion that there may be a qualitative difference between Ferrara hiring LaBeouf and LaBeouf finding work in Hollywood. I didn’t even say there WAS, only that there MAY. And in any case, your premise that:
“Your response is a defense of Ferrara. That defense suggests that either
Hughes is wrong in his analysis or correct but in some way unfair”
Now even if I WAS defending Ferrara, your inference (ie what you feel that defence “suggests”) is a non sequitor.
But in any case I wasn’t defending anyone. I was just suggesting that if we are going to condemn Ferrara for this decision (and again, I am not saying we shouldn’t), we ought to do so with due consideration for the fact that it may not be exactly the same as, say, an abuser being afforded systemic protection by entertainment industry power structures.
I literally don’t know what we’re arguing about. I made an observation about the part of the article that prompted such an observation.
You’re implying that Ferrara’s status as a Hollywood outsider should be considered in a critique of his actions. Why? What difference does it make if he’s an indie filmmaker? The condemnation comes from a decision he has made as an artist. It would not strike me as any different if Christopher Nolan hired him. Yes, Nolan has Warners backing most of his plays but that’s just money for PR or legal defense.I’ve given it due consideration. I don’t think it makes a difference.
I mean… good for you?
I suppose this shitty one-liner is what I should have written in response to your whole “Ferrara works outside of Hollywood so let’s not condemn him for hiring Shia the same way we might condemn Michael Bay for hiring Shia”I mean, that IS your position, yeah? That Ferrara should be treated differently?
No, it’s not. And not only is it not, I’ve restated that it’s not multiple times. You’ve misunderstood, it happens. Have a nice day!
Lol I also couldn’t read his reply to me, I read what you wrote seems like a very fair take.
Yeah I just saw that, the whole vibe is off, I feel like this person is just responding to what they wish was said, rather than what was said.