Did Shia LaBeouf just take a swipe at Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet’s SAG Awards speech?<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Words by Nikki Peach<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-14-at-15.47.02.png” alt=”Jennifer Aniston” title_text=”Screenshot 2025-05-14 at 15.47.02″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”] Collecting the award of Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet was candid about his ambitions. \u2018The truth is, I\u2019m really in the pursuit of greatness. I know people don\u2019t usually talk like that. But I want to be one of the greats,\u2019 he admitted on stage. \u2018I\u2019m inspired by the greats here tonight.\u2019<\/p>\n His honesty caused a stir online. He had just played a once in a lifetime role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown<\/em> \u2013 a performance he said was five and a half years in the making. Yet it was called everything from \u2018strangely smug\u2019 to \u2018pompous and self-aggrandising\u2019 on social media. Chalamet was right \u2013 it is usually modesty rather than ambition that prevails in acceptance speeches.<\/p>\n Of course, there were plenty of Chalamet stans fighting his corner too. Viola Davis, for one, said, \u2018It was a speech about excellence. It wasn\u2019t about celebrity; it wasn\u2019t about ego. I completely understood it, and it was beautiful.\u2019 Others called it \u2018inspiring\u2019 and said he is \u2018a future GOAT [greatest of all time]\u2019. Whichever side you land on, it certainly started a conversation.<\/p>\n A few months later, however, it seems to have rubbed Shia LaBeouf up the wrong way. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last week, LaBeouf said, \u2018I hear Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet get up and he says something like, \u201cI want to be great\u201d. I so know the feeling. On him, it\u2019s cute. On me, it wasn\u2019t cute. You know what I\u2019m saying?\u2019.<\/p>\n LaBeouf, who started his acting career on Disney Channel\u2019s Evan Stevens<\/em>, has taken on some challenging roles in his time. He has starred in Indiana Jones, Transformers<\/em> and Disturbia<\/em>, amongst other critically acclaimed films, and has never been shy about his pursuit of greatness either. <\/p>\n \u2018Man, I\u2019ve been searching for a long time,\u2019 he continued. \u2018I\u2019m really like a pure actor. When I was young, I didn\u2019t think that I required much help to do what I do. I was completely narcissistic and fearful and had a lack of trust. I\u2019ve been under the tutelage of a lot of dudes who tried to mentor me, but I just didn\u2019t trust them, or didn\u2019t like what they made or whatever.\u2019<\/p>\n The actor was then asked directly if he still views himself as a narcissist and said, \u2018To get into this field, there\u2019s a certain level of ego \u2013 a certain ego sickness that gets you into acting. And now I\u2019m trying to figure out what the healthy version of that looks like.\u2019<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}”] LaBeouf\u2019s most recent project, Megalopolis<\/em>, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was met with a mixed and undoubtedly disappointing response from critics. After premiering at Cannes last May, it was released in September and was a commercial failure, grossing $14.3 million against a budget of $120-136 million. This year, he fronts Henry Johnson<\/em>, based on David Mamet\u2019s play of the same name. It follows the life of a quiet man arrested without explanation who finds himself thrust into a surreal legal nightmare. He also plays the lead in Salvable<\/em>, a British Boxing crime drama directed by Bjorn Franklin and Johnny Marchetta.<\/p>\n LaBeouf is evidently drawn to complex, hard-hitting roles \u2013 ones he hopes will earn him a place amongst the greatest actors in Hollywood. However, he is perhaps further from accomplishing that goal than he realises. In 2021, LaBeouf\u2019s reputation was thrown into question when his ex-girlfriend, the musician FKA Twigs, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. Then followed allegations from another ex-girlfriend, the stylist Karolyn Pho, who alleged in an interview with The Times that LaBeouf drunkenly pinned her to a bed a head-butted her enough that she bled. \u2018So much goes into breaking down a man or woman to make them OK with a certain kind of treatment,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n When presented with the details of the claims made against him, LaBeouf wrote that \u2018many of these allegations are not true\u2019. However, he added that he owed the women \u2018the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done\u2019. LaBeouf then stated he was a \u2018sober member of a 12-step program\u2019 and in therapy. \u2018I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism,\u2019 he wrote, \u2018but I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way.\u2019<\/p>\n This was not the first time LaBeouf has been accused of turbulent behaviour, either. In 2015, strangers recorded him arguing with his girlfriend at the time, the actress Mia Goth, where he was seen telling her, \u2018This is the kind of thing that makes a person abusive.’ After the men recording him gave him a ride, he said, \u2018If I\u2019d have stayed there, I would\u2019ve killed her.\u2019<\/p>\n In Barnett\u2019s lawsuit she wrote, \u2018What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I\u2019ve ever been through in the whole of my life. I don\u2019t think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that\u2019s the thing. It can happen to anybody.\u2019 Their trial was rescheduled in October last year and is expected to begin in September.<\/p>\n Perhaps LaBeouf fails to realise how allegations of this nature might affect the work he is offered or the support it is shown, let alone his chances at becoming one of \u2018the greats\u2019. Unlike Chalamet, whose career is going from strength to strength and who has earned both critical acclaim and popularity off the back of his project choices, LaBeouf occupies an entirely different space. This is not necessarily a result of his skill in front of the camera, but rather his alleged behaviour behind it.<\/p>\n Those who don\u2019t align the two, in our books anyway, don\u2019t stand a chance of joining the top ranks \u2013 nor do they deserve to.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”] Photo: <\/b>IMAGO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did Shia LaBeouf take a swipe at Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet’s SAG Awards speech? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9644"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9659,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9644\/revisions\/9659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘I’m really like a pure actor’ \u2013 Shia LaBeouf<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]