Shia LaBeouf is here to say he’s sorry.
Okay, he’s here to say A LOT of other stuff as well.
The actor, who has become as well-known for his outbursts these days as for his IMDB resume, opens way up in the latest issue of Esquire, talking about his recent arrests… how he now views them… and what he thinks of God.
Last July, LaBeouf was taken into custody in Savannah, Georgia on charges of disorderly conduct, obstruction and public drunkenness.
In a humiliating escapade, the star got angry at an undercover police officer after the man refused to give him a cigarette, growing so angry that he had to be hauled away in handcuffs.
TMZ eventually obtained and published the police footage, which featured LaBeouf bragging about his “millionaire lawyers.”
Not a good look.
But that wasn’t his worst look of last year.
In another clip that went viral, the former Transformers star went off on a racist rant, screaming at his arresting officer:
You’ve got a president who doesn’t give a f-ck about you, you’re on a police force that doesn’t give a f-ck about you, and you wanna do what?
Arrest white people?
In this extended interview with Esquire, LaBeouf takes responsibility for this incident, talking about it in detail for the first time.
“What went on in Georgia was mortifying,” he tells the magazine, adding of what prompted him to flip out:
“White privilege and desperation and disaster…It came from a place of self-centered delusion…It was me trying to absolve myself of guilt for getting arrested.”
In short, LaBeouf confesses:
“I f–ked up.”
That’s for sure.
But it’s refreshing to hear him admit as much.
The morning after he was released from jail last summer, LaBeouf went to a party for the cast and crew of The Peanut Butter Falcon.
Most people associated with the film avoided talking about what transpired… except for co-star Zachary Gottsagen.
This up-and-coming 32-year-old actor basically laid into LaBeouf.
At one point, Shia recalls Gottsagen telling him: “You’re already famous. This is my chance. And you’re ruining it."”
The speech was exactly what LaBeouf needed to hear.
“To hear him say that he was disappointed in me probably changed the course of my life,” Shia explains, expounding at length:
“[Because] I was still fighting. I was still on my ‘Look how fast they released the videos! They don’t release these!’ Just on my defense-mechanism-fear garbage.
“And you can’t do that to him.
“He keeps it 1,000 with you, and that sh-t doesn’t even make sense to him. Zack can’t not shoot straight, and bless him for it, ‘cause in that moment, I needed a straight shooter who I couldn’t argue with.”
Their conversation continued on set – and it got pretty darn deep.
“We were getting ready to do a scene and Zack said, ‘Do you believe in God?’
“And I thought, No f-ckin’ way are you about to explain God to me, Zack…Zack said, ‘Even if He’s not real, what does it hurt?"”
And THIS actually made an impression on the troubled star? Yes!
“I don’t believe in God,” he explains to Esquire, continuing as follows:
“But did I see God? Did I hear God? Through Zack, yeah.
“He met me with love, and at the time, love was truth, and he didn’t pull punches. And I’m grateful, not even on some cheeseball sh-t trying to sell a movie. In real life.”
Wow. Who would have guessed that the key to Shia LaBeouf salvation would be some dude named Zachary Gottsagen?!?
“That motherf-cker is magical,” Shia concludes, prior to looking ahead at a career that has hit a crossroads.
But he understands why.
“I’m a buffoon. My public outbursts are failures. They’re not strategic. They’re a struggling motherf-cker showing his ass in front of the world.
“I’ve got to look at my failures in the face for a while. I need to take ownership of my sh-t and clean up my side of the street a bit before I can go out there and work again, so I’m trying to stay creative and learn from my mistakes.
“I’ve been falling forward for a long time. Most of my life.
“The truth is, in my desperation, I lost the plot.”