While Shia LaBeouf hasn’t been very prevalent on movie screens in some time, he’s still been nurturing his acting career off screen. Most recently, he’s been one of the leading roles in David Mamet’s play, Henry Johnson, starring alongside Chris Bauer, Dominic Hoffman, and Evan Jonigkeit.
The play follows the titular Henry Johnson, played by Evan Jonigkeit, who finds himself imprisoned for his misdeeds. LaBeouf plays his brooding cellmate.
After the play got out one night, during its final run at Venice’s Electric Lodge, LaBeouf politely agreed to a short interview with Hollywood Reporter about his performance.
That night, in fact, LaBeouf had revealed the parking lot had become his “chat station.” He talked to many different audience members across the play’s run, and even into its extended run as well. From big names like Sam Rockwell to young, budding artists, LaBeouf would spare time for all of them. “Because it’s so close to where I grew up, it’s a lot of friends and family in the groups here so it feels very community theater,” the actor said.
LaBeouf also said that part of the appeal was being able to work on a play based off one of Mamet’s stories, who is his favorite writer: “I always loved Mamet. He understands subtext in a way that I’ve never seen with any other writer. His subtlety… He’s the greatest joke writer that ever lived.” Mamet also intends to film a movie adaptation of the play, but LaBeouf also added that the details have yet to be finalized.
After Barry Levinson took over directing Assassination for Mamet, which LaBeouf is set to star in, that project began to stall, sparking LaBeouf to pursue Mamet to see if he could shadow him for experience. “I was like, ‘Can I just be around and watch you do something?’ He was like, ‘Well, as a matter of fact, I got this play,’ which he had in his back pocket.” Although LaBeouf stated he was unsure if he would be able to secure any more work due to the lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, FKA Twigs, against him, he was still able to appear in the play.
Assassination is set to star Shia LaBeouf and Al Pacino.
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