AVC: Were you aware of a certain picture or a certain project where you felt like you made the transition from child actor to adult actor?
SL: Guide and Bobby were big for me. Just 'cause it was a different audience and a different… They're both quality films. They got reviewed very well. They were a lot of fun on the festival circuit. The movie before Guide was my transitional movie—The Greatest Game Ever Played. Before that was Constantine, so it wasn't like anyone was looking at me after Constantine like, "Oh, that's the next guy." I was still like a childish funny sidekick type. That was what was available to me at the time, and at the time, it was the right choice. Looking back it, maybe not, but at the time, it was. And then Greatest Game came about, and Bill Paxton started in on me, like "Stand and deliver, watch some Steve McQueen, become a man, start manning up. Stand a different way, watch your posture." Things like that, which I'd never thought about. "Don't blink, blinking is for liars." Things like had never even gone through my mind. Bill's a good ol' boy, Bill's a Texan, Bill's a cowboy, Bill's a soldier. That rubbed off. That was probably my transition, in Greatest Game. The year following was like, solidification somewhat. Though I'm still in the middle of the transition. I'm still in man-boy mode. And that won't go away for a while. But it's a fun time to be in, because it's very rare that people get to work through this time. It's rare to see a John Cusack in Say Anything. It's rare that you'd find an actor right in the cusp of the child-to adult transition, just got through puberty, just getting into a different way of life. There's few movies like that, and few roles like that, so it's going to be tough to pick and choose. I guess the goal is good people, work with good people.
AVC: Did you come off Transformers onto Disturbia?
SL: No, I was training for Transformers throughout Disturbia. So, Disturbia, every day I would show up, and it'd be like, workouts, then work. So 17-hour days—we'd have an hourlong workout, then go into filming for 16 hours. Which was nuts, but it created the stamina, it prepared me for what was coming. Then when Disturbia was done, I had two days off before Transformers started.
AVC: What was it like going straight from a small film with a lot of intense acting to a big-budget special-effects-driven film?
SL: It's two different art forms. Two different directors. D.J. Caruso and Michael Bay are like night and day. It's two different worlds. Not that either one is better than the other one, you know? One is General Patton, and that's the way he has to be, with a set that big and a crew that big, and things that immense. And the other one is like a family man. Fatherly. But can "family man" and "fatherly" get you on a roof and blow the roof up? No. And can General Patton get you to be having scenes with your father passing away? It's just two different art forms, two different worlds, two completely different movies. Which was the goal.
AVC: You've described Michael Bay as "a fucking hard-ass." How so?
SL: You need that guy. 'Cause he's an adrenaline junkie. And nobody else can do that movie like Michael Bay. You need him to be stern and strong and look at things nonchalantly. "Yeah, we're going to blow the Orpheum Theatre up. Don't worry about it." That guy's a hard-ass. That's a hard-ass to me. It's like he's been through so much in his personal life and his movie-making that nothing is too big for Mike. And you need that guy on set, because that guy makes you feel safe. That guy gets you pumped. You show up and you see Mike for breakfast, and it's like, "You ready to go? You ready to go all day? You better be." And that type of shit just fuels you, you're hyped up and amped and ready to go. He's walking adrenaline. And he goes forever, Mike never sits down. He knows everyone's job, no megaphone, screaming at the top of his lungs, he's a one-man crew. He's got an incredible crew, but Mike knows everyone's job. He's a hard-ass, and he'll tell you that.
AVC: How did doing a scene in Disturbia, where you were doing entire scenes in a room by yourself with no one to play off, compare with doing a green-screen shot scene in Transformers, where you were playing to things that weren't there?
SL: It's all imaginary, it's when you start going back to craft. You start reading through Strasberg again. You start going through the craft and the imagery. Things like that are helpful—if I hadn't met Jon Voight, this would have been a really tough situation. He was there on Transformers, going through the same paces, and it was me, him, and Turturro. My 10-list. So I watched them do it. For Disturbia, we were on a soundstage staring at a wall, with DJ narrating the scene. And then on Transformers, we were doing the same type of thing, just with more movement and more action and more… just more. There's a subtlety that DJ is fishing for. Mike isn't searching for that. Mike will let you get it, and Mike will put it in a movie, but he's not searching for it. It's two different goals.
AVC: You're a very candid interview. You often speak openly in a way that a lot of Hollywood actors won't. Have you had people trying to rein you in?
SL: Sure, sure. Picture this whole room full of reiner-inners. That's what their job is, and of course I understand that. And there's an aspect to me that sort of wants to do the same. Because if you don't rein it in, you start losing mystery. Sometimes perception is almost more important than the skill level of an actor. And if you give too much away, you have nothing to take for yourself and put onscreen. If people feel like they know you too well, they won't be able to indentify with the character you're trying to portray. Or they'll feel that you're just playing yourself, and then you just become a personality actor. And that's the death of any actor. So this [Gestures at himself.] is a representative. This is far too important a conversation, it's far too important, for me to be real with you. It's just too important to my career. Too important to the things that I love. So this right here is just this representative I've created, and I can talk all day in this character, this is just another form of acting. It's closer to what I am, but what I am is too much for any kind of selling of a project. There's too much money riding on this interview going well for me to be completely candid. So it's just a creation.
AVC: But even the fact that you're able to talk about that makes you candid.
SL: Right. Well, I don't know, I know where I'm at right now, it's been pretty successful so far, and this is just what I've been doing. I think it would be strange for me to start shutting down. I don't think I'd enjoy it as much.
AVC: You're very aware of your image, the Hollywood process, the pitfalls for actors, and the directions your career could go. Where did all that come from? More books, more mentoring, just observation of the people around you?
SL: It's out of all of it. If your whole life since you're 10 is this, you've got 10 years of study. Voight is a big influence on me. I can't stop saying his name because he really is my mentor, he's been huge in my life. But when you start working with people like Jeff Bridges, Turturro, and Anthony Hopkins, and you see the goal, and it's tangible, and you can touch it, and he's right there, and you're next to him… You start studying it hard, and you study their careers and watch their evolution. And then you start seeing people who you don't really want to be, and you watch their evolution. It's different textures, and you pick one. And it's routes, you know? I could do something like sell out and make a Disney album—The Hanukkah Shia LaBeouf Special, or The Kwanzaa CD—and make a lot of money, and have a huge house and a big bed and never be able to sleep in it, because I'd hate myself. It's just what you want. Respect is more important to me than the finance of it, even though I did Transformers. You do something like that so you can do a Half Nelson and people in Japan will see it. There's a Tom Hanks element that I'm after, but with Michael Caine's longevity. If you can mix Hilary Duff and Gary Oldman into the same actor, that's my goal. I know it's strange to think about, but that's the goal.
AVC: Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life?
SL: Never wanted to do anything else ever in my life. But I'm 20, and there's so many possibilities. It would be insane for me to say, "Yeah this is definitely it, I'm never doing anything else." I'm 20 years old. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know anything about life. So I don't know. I may be a train conductor in 10 years. I have no idea. And that's the joy of this all. It's fun right now, and I love it right now, but I don't know where I'm going to be tomorrow, 'cause I'm not psychic. But I know that over the last 10 years, this has been the only joy, this has been—it's strange to say, 'cause the thinking is off. But this is more important than my hobbies, my family, my love, my friends. It's the most important thing in the world to me.
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