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Shia LaBeouf’s Abuse Is Reportedly on Full Display in ‘Slauson Rec’
In Slauson Rec, which premiered at Cannes over the weekend, the actor tries to start a theater troupe of aspiring actors but winds up traumatizing them.
Photo: Getty Images
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Last week, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off with a new rule barring nudity and voluminous ensembles from its red carpet. But, as evidenced over the last few days, accused predators and abusers very much appear to be welcome. Over the weekend, Ezra Miller (a person who has faced grooming and cult-leader allegations in recent years) made a surprise appearance at the Die, My Love premiere, for example. But making the lion’s share of headlines from the festival is Shia LaBeouf.
On Sunday, the actor and admitted abuser appeared at the festival for the premiere of Slauson Rec, a documentary from Leo Lewis O’Neil that follows LaBeouf as he attempted to establish a creative “family” of aspiring actors and potential collaborators in South Central Los Angeles back in 2018. His intention, the film shows, was to create a space for like-minded people with “a story that needs telling.” It was, in essence, an acting company. What it became, however, was a collective nightmare thanks to LaBeouf’s abuse.
Since it’s premiere, Slauson Rec has been called “more appalling than it is fascinating,” and a “damning, unfiltered, take-no-prisoners portrait of a celebrity losing his shit ever recorded for posterity.” As Rolling Stone put it, the film captures LaBeouf’s “biblical rage spirals, physical assaults, and some truly Grade-A asshole behavior” during the company’s existence between 2018 and 2020. The victims of said behavior were its members, many of whom were young, aspiring actors who idolized LaBeouf. According to Variety‘s review, audiences meet a number of them, like a young woman called Sarah Kaplan who earned a leading role in a drive-in play produced by LaBeouf’s company. Kaplan was so devoted that she chose to remain in rehearsals with LaBeouf as her mother died in the hospital from an undisclosed infection at the height of the covid pandemic. However, just two weeks before the show was to open, LaBeouf fired her because, in his opinion, someone else played the part better.
Another member of the group, Ezekiel “Zeke” Pacheco, also became a subject of LaBeouf’s wrath after he booked a part in a Netflix series. LaBeouf quickly begins to mock, taunt, and mercilessly criticize the young man until he quits the production. Then, LaBeouf’s behavior became physical. In one incident, seen on camera, LaBeouf initiated a fight with Pacheco that resulted in bruises and scrapes.