The singer FKA Twigs, the actor's ex-girlfriend, has sued him for abuse, in the latest of the interpreter's chaotic episodes, who has been in a spiral of violence and alcohol for years.
In the world of Hollywood, there are many who do everything possible to attract attention. For being the most handsome (there are several aberrations in sight), the smartest, the greatest achiever, the king of social networks or the one who sneaks into all the castings because his name has been in the spotlight for the longest time or with the most force.
Shia Labeouf seemed to belong to this last category, a promising actor but more given to making headlines for his sc--dals than for his performances. However, those calls for attention, those doubts when it comes to showing him as a flashy fool or as someone who knows very well what he is doing, have turned when it comes to defining him: according to those who know him, Labeouf is an abuser or, if anything, , a sick person. Or maybe both.
On the 11th, the British singer FKA Twigs, who had been dating the actor for about a year and a half, announced that she had denounced the actor before a court in Los Angeles (California) for “s---al assault, abuse and emotional distress.” In the testimony that the artist gave to The New York Times, she spoke of physical and mental attacks in public and in private, screams, attempts to suffocate her, how he knowingly gave her a s----lly transmitted disease or how she came to be close to him.
He was about to crash the car they were traveling in if she didn't confess her unconditional love. “I never thought something like this could happen to me,” Twigs, 32, explained on her Instagram account, saying that it had been difficult for her to process it and that she realized the importance of talking. “I hope that sharing my experience really helps others feel like they are not alone and sheds light on those who care about others who may be in an abusive situation, that they can help, because I know it can be confusing and complicated to know what do".
The one who extended a hand to FKA Twigs was the singer Sia, who recorded a video clip with the actor six years ago. “Shia, a pathological liar, has also caused me emotional damage, who got me into an adulterous relationship by stating that he was single,” said the interpreter, who however introduced a hitherto unconsidered variable. “I think he is very sick and I feel compassion for him and his victims.”
More women have raised their voices against Labeouf, 34 years old. They accuse him of aggression, of abusing alcohol. He partly acknowledges it; Although he states by email to the New York newspaper that he does not agree with these testimonies. The child prodigy of series, programs and small television roles, the one who started working at the age of 12, who a decade ago was already earning 16 million dollars and whom Time magazine defined as a “belligerent neighborhood boy” has become something more than a broken toy. “I'm not cured of alcoholism or my PTSD,” he says. Alcohol, drugs and media exposure have taken their toll on him, and perhaps, as people close to him are pointing out, there is an underlying mental illness. “But I am willing to do whatever it takes to recover, and I will always apologize to those I have hurt along the way.”
This son of a visual artist mother and a mime and circus clown father did not have a very happy childhood. His father was also an addict, and the couple divorced when he was eight years old, so he was raised by his uncle. After small roles in The X-Files, ER or Dumb and Dumber, fame and money began to arrive (especially thanks to the Transformers saga, which he now denies) but also problems.
Starting in 2011, his life has become a succession of arrests (the first that same year, after a fight in a club in Los Angeles), visits to detoxification clinics and public fights. When he presented his own short film at Cannes in May 2012, called Howard Cantour.com, he was told it was plagiarism. He admitted it, but the jokes and mockery did not stop, so he decided to retire from public life. In February 2014 he appeared at the premiere of Nymphomaniac in Berlin with a paper bag over his head that read “I'm not famous anymore.” Months later he was arrested at a Cabaret show on Broadway for smoking and shouting drunk in the room. It was June 2014. In October 2015 the next arrest arrived, this time in Texas.
