There's a classic L.A. moment unfolding in the Hollywood Hills, as 20-year-old Shia LaBeouf sits for a photo shoot at the house of an old Scientologist lady. The woman, who's hard of hearing, misunderstands his jokes about her religion. Everyone stares at him and his uneasy poses. "I was so fucking awkward today," he says later. "I feel more comfortable in motion."

LaBeouf is no stranger to awkward moments. Before the L.A. native started acting professionally, at age 11, he and his hardcore hippie parents sold hot dogs and shaved ice in predominantly Latino Echo Park, dressed as clowns. They called themselves the Snow Cone Family Circus. His father was a Vietnam vet who cultivated Thai sticks and, LaBeouf says, became addicted to PCP, heroin, and cocaine.  "I got to watch his downfall," recalls LaBeouf. "You'd sit there and watch him with his junkie friends and my mom trying to hold down three jobs." This explains why LaBeouf doesn't do drugs or party with, say, Lindsay Lohan.

Instead, he hangs out with his mentor Jon Voight, studies the craft of acting, and observes people at the L.A. Zoo. "If you see a weirdo with a visor and a little knapsack taking notes, that's me," he says. A massive fan of indie rap label Def Jux, he's making a documentary about bipolar rapper Cage, one of the first Prozac guinea pigs. "He's lost, but beautifully lost," says LaBeouf. Hoping to have a career somewhere between that of Tom Hanks and Gary Oldman, he's balancing weighty projects like Bobby and A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints with his first action flick, the surefire hit Transformers, out next summer. "I don't want a Sean Penn career. He's an amazing actor, but it wasn't a joyful career," LaBeouf says. "You have to start taking shit with a grain of salt and laughing at the whole fucking situation."