Shia LaBeouf is the kind of ‘artist’ whose ability to tap into human nature is so limited he had to steal someone else’s book just to do it. So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Shia is the kind of actor who can’t even pretend to have cuts on his face, so instead he’ll resort to taking a knife to his cheek which is what he did for his role alongside Brad Pitt in Fury (opening October 17th). There’s commitment, and then there’s “you should be committed, you delusional asshole.” Via Page Six …
“We were in make-up and they were putting cuts on Shia and I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, it looks good,’” recalled Lerman, 22. “And Shia was like, ‘No it doesn’t look real.’” He continued, “Then he walks out into the hallway and says, ‘Hey man, wanna see something fun? Check this out …’ and he takes out a knife and cuts his face. And for the whole movie he kept opening these cuts on his face. That’s all real.” To further convince audiences of his dedication to his character, LaBeouf also had a tooth removed. He tweeted photographic evidence back in May 2013. “He did go to a dentist and asked them to pull his tooth out, but yeah, what an odd request,” said Lerman.
Once again, I’m all for committing to a role–by all means, do it. But pulling a tooth? Cutting your face? That’s two steps away from Jackass, and no amount of “it’s method!” is going to hide that fact. The entire point of acting is to act. Pretend. Tap into something primal inside of you and use that. Cutting yourself is just the lazy man’s shorthand for getting in touch with your grizzled, world weary side.