Actor Shia LaBeouf has said “jail be another adventure” during a chaotic interview following his recent New Orleans arrest.
LaBeouf was recently ordered to attend rehab and undergo a drug testing program following his arrest in New Orleans last month.
The actor was arrested and charged with battery on February 17 after allegedly assaulting two men at a business on Royal Street in the city’s French Quarter, where a staff member reported he had been punched.
On February 26, New Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Simone Levine revoked LaBeouf’s jail release on his own recognisance, meaning he had originally been released without posting bail, and ordered a bond of $100,000. The Transformers star appeared in the courtroom alongside his attorney and bonded out immediately after proceedings, according to New Orleans news outlet NOLA.
The judge imposed the new conditions after initially allowing him to leave jail without bond – at the time of his release, allegations of homophobic comments attributed to him hadn’t become part of the official court record. As a result, Levine summoned him to court. A state judge then told him to put up bond to remain out of jail while the case goes on, citing the “seriousness of the offence alleged”.
LaBeouf was able to obtain a bond from a local company, ‘Free Me’, the same phrase he posted on social media the day after his arrest.
He’s since been arrested again, this time on an additional charge of misdemeanour count of simple battery related to the earlier event. The Transformers actor now faces three charges, with his next hearing being scheduled for March 19.
He’s now reflected on his arrest in a new interview with Andrew Calaghan, during which he discussed his past legal issues and previous relationships. You can watch the interview below.
“I fucked up, it’s on me,” he said of his recent arrest. “It was no good, bro. My behaviour’s dirty, ugly, disgusting, so I gotta eat it, you know?”
He went on: “Who gives a fuck though? It’s another experience. Jail be another adventure. What are you gonna do?”
He then went on to say he didn’t think he had a “drinking problem” but a “small man complex.” He continued: “Some kind of Napoleonic, I don’t know what it is. I think it’s something that has to do with anger and ego more than my drinking.”
He said he had been “forced to get sober by the court system, usually, and then women get scared, so you gotta stay sober for the girl.”
He added that his alleged bigotry in the aforementioned incident is “why I got arrested.”
He concluded: “I am wrong for touching anyone ever and that’s the end of my statement on this whole shit.”
In an arrest report from the New Orleans Police Department, officers stated that LaBeouf punched two men, dislocating one victim’s nose, and repeatedly shouted a homophobic slur, saying at one point, “These f*****s put me in jail. I’m a Catholic.”
Previously, The Hollywood Reporter published an article speaking to bar staff in the New Orleans area, who claimed the actor had been “terrorising” the city after visiting for its Mardi Gras celebrations and getting into various disagreements with staff and members of the public. One interviewee, doorman Robert Skuse, claimed he was “inebriated” and “somewhat belligerent” when he encountered the star.
TMZ also shared a video of the actor reportedly being held down and hit across the head by two men in the street. In the clip, LaBeouf, who appears shirtless and on his back, struggles to get to his feet when an unidentified man allegedly hits him twice across the head and says, “We gonna beat the fuck out you, boy. Chill!” The actor is then held down by the shoulders by two men before, according to the outlet’s report, police arrived on the scene.