According to Variety Shia LaBeouf spent two hours on Jon Bernthal’s podcast “Real Ones,” LaBeouf addressing the disturbing accusations of sexual battery and physical and verbal abuse brought against him by FKA Twigs in a 2020 lawsuit.
LaBeouf dated FKA Twigs for roughly a year after they met on the set of his 2019 film “Honey Boy.”
With allegations ranging from violent attacks to strangulation, FKA Twigs accused LaBeouf of knowingly infecting her with an STD, and shooting stray dogs with a gun to get into character for his film “The Tax Collector.”
“I hurt that woman,” LaBeouf said, although he did not call her by name on the podcast. “And in the process of doing that, I hurt many other people, and many other people before that woman. I was a pleasure-seeking, selfish, self-centered, dishonest, inconsiderate, fearful human being.”
The actor added: “When I think about what my life has become, and what it is now, like what my purpose is now… I need to be useful. And when I look at this #MeToo environment, there’s not a whole lot of dudes that are taking accountability.”
“I fucked up bad,” LaBeouf admitted. “Like crash and burn type shit. [I] hurt a lot of people, and I’m fully aware of that. And I’m going to owe for the rest of my life.” LaBeouf later said he has a “long list of people that I need to make amends to.”
During the interview, LaBeouf admitted to “cheat[ing] on every woman I’ve ever been with” and never telling his “sexual partners about getting cold sores,” which he acknowledged was “manipulative.”
LaBeouf discussed being in a better headspace now, saying that when the allegations first went public, he “wanted to hit Twitter and be like, ‘Look, I got receipts.’” Without naming her, he added that his accuser is a “saint” and “saved my fucking life.”
“Had she not intervened in my life and not created the avenue for me to experience ego death, I’d either have a really mediocre existence or I’d be dead in full,” LaBeouf said.
LaBeouf also opened up about contemplating suicide during the “early days” after the accusations went public. “I went and loaded up a gun and sat on my table,” he said. “I was gonna kill myself.”
Referencing the “hypocrisy of where we’re at in discourse in this country… especially in this industry,” Bernthal asked LaBeouf how he reacts to Hollywood’s alienating him.
“I’m in the tribe of the fuck-ups. I’m a very public sinner, a very fallible person in the public sphere,” LaBeouf responded. “What I think now my purpose is, is to not do… the other examples that we’ve had of how to navigate something like this — which is to go after the woman, or try to win a court case, or get back into a fucking movie or like get back on at all.”
LaBeouf added: “My purpose, and I mean this with every fiber of my being, is to be instructive with my life, so that I can be an advertisement, like a billboard, for a principled way of living.”
i love jon bernthal, but i can’t support his new podcast episode. shia labeouf terrorized fka twigs and made her fear for her life. i can’t support this redemption arc he’s attempting to go on instead of actually facing his actions and being held accountable.
— cece ✨ (@pinkrhiannon) August 26, 2022
and
shia labeouf literally slept with a gun beside him so his girlfriend at the time, FKA Twigs would be too scared to even go to the bathroom or leave in the middle of the night. and because you hate that woman so much you’ll believe what he has to say to fit you’re narrative.
— CYD (@latenitecydnema) August 25, 2022
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shia labeouf trying to have this “i’m a reformed person” comeback era before his trial with fka twigs isn’t gonna work. this is the same man that verbally, physically abused her, berated her, slept with a gun on his side of the bed traumatizing her to not move, etc.
— khalia. | king chadwick☀️ (@VERONASFILMS) August 26, 2022
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Shia LaBeouf couldn’t even hold FKA Twigs as a rhetorical focal point for five seconds before shifting m entirely to how his decision to abuse her hurt him and brought him to brink of suicide. I do not believe he understands/cares what he did to her. I do not believe he’s sorry.
— [kie.ran] (@danblackroyd) August 28, 2022
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I’m tired of white people using mental illness to exonerate them from crimes and violence against Black people. Yes, I’m talking about FKA Twigs and Shia LaBeouf. No, I don’t not grant white males empathy for mental illness not given to the Black women traumatized by their abuse.
— Ola Ojewumi (@Olas_Truth) August 28, 2022
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Shia LaBeouf abused FKA Twigs in their relationship. There is no coming back from that. A podcast interview or movie will NOT redeem him. F*ck outta here.
— . (@MJFINESSELOVER) August 27, 2022
Facts!
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