Shia LaBeouf, who's got several promising films set for release later this year, is currently out on the interview circuit discussing the Slauson Rec. Theater Company he co-founded in Los Angeles.
In a new interview with Josh Horowitz for MTV, the consistent multi-hyphenate and writer of the semi-autobiographical Sundance hit Honey Boy also dove into his years-strong legacy in cinema and how each chapter of his career has helped guide him to where he is today.
Asked about his creative relationship with Jaden Smith, who's among those set to perform at a Slauson Rec. benefit later this month, LaBeouf looked back on how they first met and praised Jaden's current place in the zeitgeist.
"I've known Jaden since before he was ever doing the entertainment thing," LaBeouf said around the 5:30 mark in the video up top, taking it all the way back to the I, Robot days. "I knew Jaden when we were playing Sonic the Hedgehog in his dad's trailer. I didn't even really give a shit about acting at that time. I was just grinding. I cared about Will Smith at that time. I didn't care about acting [or] the craft."
LaBeouf shouted out Will for always being a "really good dude" who supported his work and sent him words of encouragement.
"He's just always been like a shepherd in my corner from afar without ever tooting the horn in public," he said. "He's just always been there for me anytime I fuck up or get in trouble." As for Jaden, LaBeouf explained how cool it's been to see him develop into an artistic voice of his own, and interestingly one that regularly converges with LaBeouf's public work with frequent collaborators Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner.
"Jaden's just sorta always showed up every time that I've done something publicly, so all these public performance art things that I've done with Luke and Nastja, he's always showed up and supported," he said. "So we've been in touch that way and then I've been watching him float and rise to the top and grab a hold of his craft and become some kind of little maestro. He knows a lot of the same people that I know and we've just sorta been piggybacking off each other for a while. He was the first artist in, and then from Jaden, really, came a lot of these other artists because he's poppin' right now and his album's coming out on the 28th."
Asked about the sort of conversations he and Jaden have, LaBeouf agreed they were as "existential as this gets" but pointed out the privilege required to have such conversations in the first place.
"We're blessed in that we're able to be existential because none of us are, like, you know, thinking about how am I gonna eat today, you know what I mean?" he said.
Catch the full interview up top, then see below for more info on the Slauson Rec benefit featuring YG, Slayyyter, and more.
