
This post deals with abuse and might be triggering for some readers.
Happiness, for Shia LaBeouf, is on a movie set, acting, "creating something with somebody".
The rest of his life, he told fellow actor Kristen Stewart in 2019, feels dissatisfying. Deeply so.
"This is where things get tricky for me, [acting] isn’t my whole life. I have to get okay with that," he said during their Actors On Actors interview. "That’s usually where things go awry for me. When I'm not on a set, life gets hard."
Just months earlier his girlfriend, FKA Twigs had left him. But for her, it seems, the word 'hard' wouldn't even come close to describing their life together.
Watch: Violence and women, the hidden numbers. Post continues after video.
LaBeouf is currently the subject of a domestic violence lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by the British musician, with whom he was in a relationship for almost a year until early 2019.
The suit accuses the 34-year-old of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. And while the actor told The New York Times that "many" of the allegations are "not true", he acknowledged her right to air the claims and conceded that he struggles with alcoholism and aggression.
"I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me," he told the paper in a statement. "I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say."
In the wake of reporting about the lawsuit, Australian singer Sia expressed her support for FKA Twigs via Twitter and aired her own allegations about LaBeouf, who starred in her 2015 'Elastic Heart' video: "I too have been emotionally hurt by Shia," she wrote, "a pathological liar, who conned me into an adulterous relationship claiming to be single".
The timing of their affair is unclear, and LaBeouf has not addressed the claim.
I too have been hurt emotionally by Shia, a pathological liar, who conned me into an adulterous relationship claiming to be single. I believe he's very sick and have compassion for him AND his victims. Just know, if you love yourself- stay safe, stay away. https://t.co/2NNEj9w8b1
— sia (@Sia) December 13, 2020