Shia LaBeouf’s acting school is the subject of an intense documentary

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Shia LaBeouf has often found himself at the center of controversy. A new documentary that recently premiered ay the Cannes Film Festival has the actor right back there.

Leo Lewis O’Neil’s documentary “Slauson Rec,” which explores the experimental theater company LaBeouf launched in Los Angeles in 2018, sparked some 30 audience members to walk out of the screening at Cannes, according to Variety.

The footage reportedly shows the volatile actor reacting with aggression and sometimes violence towards some of the participants who joined the company, organized out of the Slauson Recreation Center in Los Angeles.

“I’ve done a lot of coming to terms with the failure that was my life, and the plastic foundation I had,” Variety reports LaBeouf as saying in a present day interview in the first few moments of the film. “I left a lot of people in the wake of my personality defects.”

He reportedly “instigates” a fist fight with a company member named Zeke, who runs afoul of LaBeouf after booking a role on a Netflix project and quits 45 days into rehearsals at the theater company.

Another interaction with Zeke reportedly shows LaBeouf going off on the young man the actor dubbed “James Dean.”

“I don’t give a f**k what you say to me… You’ve got it better than I ever had it,” Variety quotes LaBeouf as saying in doc. “What the f**k is the attitude problem? I’m giving you everything I have, so stop f**ing with me.”

LaBeouf is also shown firing a women named Sarah who had remained with the troupe, despite her mother being ill in the hospital. The actor lets her go after her mother dies and two weeks before the play she had a part in was scheduled to open.

O’Neil told Vanity Fair he initially showed up as one of hundreds of people who came to participate in the theater company before it was whittled down to about 80 or so members. He said LaBeouf saw that he had a camera and encouraged him to film what was happening.

“He was putting his belief in me and giving me an opportunity,” O’Neil told the publication. “I had never done something like that before.”

A representative for LaBeouf directed CNN to the statement he provided to Vanity Fair, in which he expressed his support for the release of the documentary.

“I gave Leo (Lewis O’Neil, ‘Slauson Rec’ director) this camera and encouraged him to share his vision and his personal experience without edit. I am aware of the doc and fully support the release of the film,” he said in the statement last month. “While my teaching methods may be unconventional for some, I am proud of the incredible accomplishments that these kids achieved. Together we turned a drama class into an acting company. I wish only good things for Leo and everyone who was part of The Slauson Rec Company.”

CNN’s Alli Rosenbloom contributed to this story

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