The reason why Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf will never work together again
In 2013, Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf became entangled in a bitter exchange while working together on the Broadway production Orphans. The dispute began during rehearsals when LaBeouf criticised Baldwin’s commitment to the project.
“One day, he attacked me in front of everyone,” Baldwin recalled during a conversation with New York magazine. “He said, “You’re slowing me down, and you don’t know your lines. And if you don’t say your lines, I’m just going to keep saying my lines.”
“We all sat, frozen,” he continued. “I snorted a bit, and, turning to him in front of the whole cast, I asked, ‘If I don’t say my words fast enough, you’re going to just say your next line?’ I said. ‘You realise the lines are written in a certain order?’ He just glared at me.”
According to the Rust actor, he had been warned before agreeing to partake in Orphans that LaBeouf was ‘potentially very difficult to work with’.
Following the awkward in-person altercation at the theatre, LaBeouf dropped out of the project due to “creative differences” just a month before it was scheduled to begin. Discussing his tense relationship with the “difficult” actor with Vulture, Baldwin likened him to a celebrity chef who wants applause but is too idle to put in the hard work.
“Some of the greatest movie stars had really serious theatre careers and still do,” Baldwin said. “And many film actors, though, who are purely film actors, they’re kind of like celebrity chefs, you know what I mean?”
In a swift retort, LaBeouf referenced an email he had received from director Daniel Sullivan in a post on Twitter. The message implied that Baldwin hadn’t prepared for the role properly and would be problematic during rehearsals.
“Don’t be too surprised if Alec doesn’t look up from his script much for the first few days,” Sullivan wrote. “I suspect he’s not nearly as prepared as you are. Not unusual at all when actors have a good long rehearsal time like we have. I just don’t want it to throw you. I did a reading of another play once with Alec, and about 10 minutes in, I thought, ‘Oh, I guess he’s just going to read it.'”
In a more direct response to Baldwin’s “celebrity chef” comments, LaBeouf added: “I’m a hustler. I don’t get tired. I’m 26, chief.”
“Listen, boy. I’m not your fuckin’ chief,” Baldwin curtly replied to the email. “You got that? Ha. Hahahahaha. Let’s go.”
After LaBeouf shared the exchange on Twitter, Baldwin told the New York Times that he was disappointed in the young actor’s indiscretion. “I can tell you that, in all honesty, I don’t think he’s in a good position to be giving interpretations of what the theatre is and what the theatre isn’t,” Baldwin added in conversation with Vulture. “I mean, he was never in the theatre. He came into a rehearsal room for six or seven days.”
It’s safe to say the pair won’t move mountains to work together again after that frosty exchange. See a clip taken from Alec Baldwin’s Orphans performance below.
