Months before Shia LaBeouf was arrested in New Orleans, the actor’s increasingly erratic behavior sparked concern on the set of his upcoming movie, three production sources say, culminating in the actor running across a live bullpen with a charging bull during an improvised scene.
The actor was arrested on two counts of simple battery Tuesday following a fight in the early morning during Mardi Gras celebrations. According to police, the 39-year-old was allegedly “causing a disturbance” and getting increasingly “aggressive” before he reportedly struck two people during the prolonged scuffle outside a bar near the French Quarter. Witnesses held LaBeouf down until officials arrived. He was released later that afternoon and seen jogging away from the jailhouse.
In the days leading up to LaBeouf’s arrest, multiple bartenders and patrons told The Hollywood Reporter the actor had become somewhat of a nuisance around town, showing up to various establishments in an “inebriated” state, forgetting to tip, taking off his shirt, and interacting with patrons, posing for selfies, and giving one woman acting pointers.
Reports about LaBeouf’s behavior and arrest did not shock some who worked on the Oklahoma set of his upcoming movie, The Rooster Prince, last November. “He was completely wild,” says one production member. “I don’t think he’s stable. I don’t know that he’s been stable for a while.”
Representatives for LaBeouf did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment about his arrest, nor did they respond to a request for comment regarding the concerns raised by production members for this article.
The Holes and Transformers star settled in early to Oklahoma City before filming began last fall. Local fans snapped selfies with him and posted on social media about meeting a friendly LaBeouf at various restaurants, boutiques, bars, gas stations, and coffee shops. He had arrived to star in director and screenwriter Josh Soskin’s debut feature film, playing a bipolar Harvard psychiatrist who embarks on a cross-country road trip with his younger brother, played by Tell Me Lies star Jackson White.
Five production sources tell Rolling Stone they perceived LaBeouf as adopting a Method-acting approach for the role — where an actor fully inhabits a character both on camera and off — but three of the crew members asserted that LaBeouf blurred the lines. He would seemingly dip in and out of the technique (people still called him “Shia”), and they weren’t sure if his behavior could be attributed to the character or not. LaBeouf allegedly pushed the dynamic to the extreme, creating what one source describes as a “hostile” work environment.
“There’s Method acting, and there’s whatever the fuck happened on The Rooster Prince,” says a second production source. A third member adds that it was a running joke that rather than “Method acting,” it seemed like LaBeouf was “meth-head acting.” (No crew members indicated to Rolling Stone that they thought LaBeouf was actually using the drug.)
A fourth person who worked on the film tempered allegations about LaBeouf’s behavior by stressing that the film dealt with “very difficult and emotional” themes — based on Soskin’s life — and it was on the days “that had very difficult subject matter, [he] put everyone on edge a little bit just due to the subject matter.”
This wouldn’t be the first time that LaBeouf has approached his work in an immersive manner. As part of a lawsuit that LaBeouf’s ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs filed against him in December 2020, alleging “relentless abuse,” the singer said LaBeouf took on his roles “in real life.” She claimed that in preparation for the 2020 film The Tax Collector, he bragged that “he would drive around neighborhoods in Los Angeles and shoot stray dogs … because he wanted to know what it felt like to take a life so he could get into the ‘mindset of a killer,’ like his role in the movie.” (The lawsuit was settled in July 2025.)
Crew members note that LaBeouf was generally friendly to the below-the-line production team. Background actress Elda Muniz says LaBeouf “was nothing but respectful to background,” and that she observed him being “down to earth” and “kind” to everyone he interacted with. However, throughout the monthlong Rooster Prince shoot in Oklahoma, LaBeouf could be extremely temperamental, other sources say. He would often threaten to walk off set for the day or quit entirely, four crew members claim, and would constantly need to be talked down. LaBeouf’s outbursts, according to crew sources, were mostly directed at Soskin and his co-star, White, who he allegedly frequently belittled to others.
“He made a lot of comments regularly against Jackson, saying that ‘he couldn’t act and he can’t act for him,’” says a production source. “That was uncomfortable to be around, and it had a lot of us thinking, ‘What is it like for Jackson to be here at work and having to hear the person he has to work with every day constantly criticizing him and putting him down in that way?’” (A representative for Soskin declined to comment. A representative for White did not reply to a request for comment.)
LaBeouf’s acting approach turned from making people on set uncomfortable to a safety concern when he allegedly improvised a scene filmed last November at Cowboys, a local honky-tonk that had a live bullpen for rodeos. A small film crew shot a “run-and-gun”-type sequence at the bar, making the most of the lively atmosphere for a free-flowing scene that the bar allegedly preapproved. But what was not planned or sanctioned, according to sources, was an in-character LaBeouf hoisting himself up over the bullpen’s seven-foot guardrails while a live bull bucked and charged inside, and sprinting to the other side of the pen.
Multiple videos posted online show LaBeouf making a dash across the pen. Erin Eirwin was watching the bull riding when LaBeouf scrambled over the side of the rails, running past her. “It looked like the bull was about to charge after him and try to gore him,” Eirwin says. “I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is about to get really bad.’ But then he jumps out right in front of me, kicks dirt into my eyes accidentally, then climbs over the bar railing, knocks over a couple of beer bottles at my feet, and then grabs my shoulders, says, ‘I am so sorry,’ and then disappears into the crowd. I see someone grab him, start yelling at him, saying, ‘What the fuck are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? We gotta go.’”
Spectator Austin Starks confirms the bull was still inside the pen when LaBeouf jumped down from the rails, but says he didn’t think LaBeouf put himself too much in harm’s way. “The bull was there, but he wasn’t trying to hop on its back at that very moment,” Starks says.
Still, the unplanned stunt could have posed a serious danger. “That’s putting at risk not only himself, the actor, but anyone that’s in the bull ring,” says a production source. “That’s liability on the location.”
LaBeouf’s behavior on The Rooster Prince and antics in New Orleans has the local Oklahoma film scene slightly on edge. LaBeouf is scheduled to star in another film, God of the Rodeo, backed in part by producer Giannina Facio and her husband, director Ridley Scott, which is expected to film in the area in June and July, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
Neither LaBeouf nor his representative directly addressed his recent arrest, but on his verified X account Wednesday morning, LaBeouf posted the note, “Free me.” Hours after being treated at the hospital for his injuries and released from jail, LaBeouf was back out on the streets of New Orleans in a fresh outfit and nursing a beer. At night, he was dancing on the street with what appeared to be his arrest papers hanging from his mouth.
LaBeouf has been previously vocal about his purported sobriety, disclosing he was in therapy and a 12-step program after FKA Twigs accused him of physical, emotional, and mental abuse during their relationship. “I am not cured of my PTSD and alcoholism,” LaBeouf told The New York Times in 2020, “but I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way.”
As recently as last March, he purported to be sober and credited actors like Mel Gibson and Sean Penn for rescuing him. “They got around me,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, “and kept me alive.”
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