Shia LaBeouf Left a Voicemail for His Doppelgänger Who Was Punched in the Face

"I wish I was in New York," Shia said. "I'd come bring you soup."

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Shia LaBeouf has reached out to the man who was punched in the face last weekend for having the tenacity to look like the 29-year-old actor. Mario Licato, a director in digital advertising, was assaulted at a subway station in New York City's Lower East Side by a man who shouted out, "This is because you look like Shia LaBeouf." Yes, that's a lot of words to shout out before punching someone. And yes, that's not a particularly reasonable motive to sock someone in the face.

LaBeouf at least agreed with the latter, as he left a voicemail for Licato expressing remorse about the assault. But first he left an Instagram comment to alert Licato to the voicemail, because why create one notification when you can create two.

Licato summarized the voicemail in an interview with Cosmopolitan

It was a pretty long voicemail. He was like, "Hey, this is Shia LaBeouf … I just read an article that you were punched in the face because you look like me?" And he was like, "Aw, man. That sucks. I'm so sorry. But I get it. It's happened to me before." And then he was like, "I don't know. I wish I was in New York. I'd come bring you soup." He was just like, "This sucks. I don't even know what to say. I'm sorry. People are just crazy. Just because you look like me?" I was obviously laughing the whole time. And then he was like, "Here's my phone number. Don't give it to anybody. Please, please, call me back. Call me back if you want to. We could chat. Let's giggle over this. Maybe there's a silver lining in all this. But call me back." And then he was like, "And once again, this is Shia LaBeouf, the guy you got hit for looking like. And yeah, man, I'm sorry. I'm just really sorry." And he was like "Keep your head up, G." And that was it.

"Keep your head up, G" is something we could all hear more often, even without a black eye. But why soup? It's not like Licato has a cold. Does Shia know something about punched-in-the-face ailments that we don't? Or does he simply know of an NYC soup spot so fire it can lift anyone's spirit? 

Licato has yet to call LaBeouf, at least at the time of this interview, but he plans to find out why someone would hate Shia so. "What did you do to some random bro in New York that he needed to punch me for it?" Licato said, imagining his eventual conversation. "Did you steal his girlfriend? Maybe he just really hated you sitting in the movie theater for three days straight watching your own movies?"

Or perhaps it was revenge for LaBeouf punching someone in the face in the name of art

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