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Shia LaBeouf has starred in several movies about painful relationships.
In his latest, “Pieces of a Woman,” out Dec. 30, he plays a father whose baby dies in a tragic home birth, leaving his marriage in pieces.
Vanessa Kirby, who plays his wife, already scooped a best actress award at the Venice Film Festival and is touted to be nominated for an Oscar. But awards season is likely a bust for LaBeouf — once thought to be a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actor nod — now that he’s being sued by his ex, singer FKA Twigs, for sexual battery.
As a LaBeouf pal told The Post: He’s an “extremely troubled” individual.
“This has been hugely traumatizing for Twigs,” said a friend of the singer, alleging that Twigs is haunted by memories: “Shia having a gun by the side of the bed and her fearing to go to the bathroom at night — it’s a primal fear to be stuck feeling helpless in the dark.”
Twigs (neé Tahliah Debrett Barnett), 32, filed the lawsuit which contains allegations from another of the actor’s exes, stylist Karolyn Pho.
Singer Sia, 45, who hired LaBeouf to perform in her 2015 “Elastic Heart” video, also tweeted: “I too have been hurt emotionally by Shia, a pathological liar, who conned me into an adulterous relationship claiming to be single. I believe he’s very sick … stay safe, stay away.”
And they are not the only ones who claim to have been abused by the former Disney child star.
Singer-songwriter Katy Rose also tweeted after Twigs’ accusations: “I grew up with Shia LaBeouf in Los Angeles. We … were working kids in the entertainment business at the same time” and he “groped me violently at a party in the Hollywood Hills” when both of them were teens.
“Shia was always aggressive towards girls, myself included, while we were growing up in Hollywood,” Rose told The Post. “He did grope me at a party when I was 14 … multiple times, on different occasions. He was always a scary guy. I felt very threatened by him.”
Sia, Pho and Twigs declined to speak to The Post.
Once one of Hollywood’s most promising actors, starring in “Fury” and the ”Transformers” movies, LaBeouf, 34, released a statement that read in part, “Although many of these allegations are not true, I am not in the position to defend any of my actions,” he said, also noting that he is in recovery for alcohol abuse.
“I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years,” he said in a statement to the New York Times. “I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.”
A source familiar with the lawsuit told The Post that another ex, 27-year-old actress Mia Goth, talked to the women and their attorneys about possibly being part of the suit.
“Mia initially had conversations,” said the lawsuit source. “She then got back with Shia. They’re entwined in a way that none of us can understand.”
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The two reportedly “wed” in a 2012 Las Vegas ceremony that wasn’t legal. They met on the 2012 film “Nymphomaniac.” In 2015, they were caught on camera having an argument which nearly turned violent before LaBeouf was stopped by witnesses. He has admitted: “If I’d have stayed there, I would have killed her.”
A source familiar with their romance told The Post: “It’s crazy, but they are always on-again, off-again. It [would be] a stretch to say that Shia hasn’t been abusive to Mia — you can see that on the video.” Goth declined to comment.
A LaBeouf source said the actor and Goth are not currently together.
Twigs’ lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Los Angeles Superior Court, is shocking. In it, she alleges that LaBeouf told her he drove around LA shooting stray dogs to get into the “mindset” of a killer for the movie “The Tax Collector.”
The singer also claims that she was once woken up by LaBeouf squeezing her arms and choking her. While driving, she alleges in the suit, LaBeouf threatened to crash the car unless Twigs professed her “eternal love.” He then “violently attacked” her at a gas station, throwing her against the car and screaming in her face before attempting to strangle her.
According to the suit, he forced her to watch documentaries about murdered women before going to bed. Twigs also alleges that LaBeouf gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
The two co-starred in “Honeyboy,” the 2018 semi-autobiographical film about the actor’s rocky childhood and started dating after filming ended, with Twigs moving in with LaBeouf in Los Angeles. They split in the summer of 2019.
Now at home in Hackney, East London, Twigs is said to be in therapy following the traumatic relationship. Her friend said Twigs felt like she had “no choice” but to bring the lawsuit.
“Shia is not of sound mind … a lot of the stuff that [Twigs] is finding triggering at the moment is the psychological torment that she endured,” said the friend. “It keeps playing itself out. Every time you have to recount something, it triggers you again.”
As for what exactly Twigs wants out of the suit, the friend said: “For no one else to get hurt … by Shia — however that happens, whether that’s by a court trial or proactively. Shia needs to get help, and that’s the crux of everything.”
Twigs’ attorney Bryan Freedman told The Post that she and Pho wanted the star to get help for his mental and alcohol issues, and make a donation to a shelter for abused women.
But the lawsuit came as a surprise to the actor and his team.
According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Twigs’ counsel first contacted LaBeouf’s attorneys in November 2019 with a string of demands — including that the actor enter therapy immediately. At that time, no mention of a lawsuit was made.
“Shia has never denied having serious issues for which he needs professional help, and he has been in treatment since the time these allegations were raised, if not before,” Shawn Holley, LaBeouf’s lawyer, told The Post. She said that he had agreed “without hesitation to Twigs’ request” of mediation, that he seek mental health treatment, and “that he make a significant donation to a charity of her choosing.”
A mediation appointment was paid for by LaBeouf, who made arrangements to leave the set of the movie he was filming outside the US and fly back for the date. According to Holley, “Twigs’ team [then] canceled the mediation without explanation.” She added that there was “no meaningful response” when LaBeouf tried to reschedule the date again.
“For all these reasons, we were stunned to learn that this lawsuit had been filed, seemingly out of the blue, almost a year later,” Holley added.
“The women honestly just wanted him to do what he needed to get better — to stop sabotaging himself and other people,” the friend said. “If Shia had done what was asked of him there would not be a legal claim now.”
As for Twigs’ allegations of abuse, Holley said, “There are many disputed issues of fact, as well as numerous third-party witnesses who refute many of Twigs’ claims.”
While Holley said LaBeouf “was — and remains — willing to accept responsibility for his misdeeds,” there is one claims that the actor does roundly dispute: In the lawsuit, Twigs alleges that he gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
“There was … one issue which Shia refused to admit to — that is, [Twigs’] claim that he had given her [an STD],” Holley said. “Shia immediately went to a doctor and had a blood test performed which proved that he, in fact, did not and does not have [the STD]. This information was relayed to Twigs’ team. It was shortly thereafter that her lawyers unilaterally canceled the mediation.”
(The Twigs friend said the singer did not cancel mediation because of the STD denial.)
Shia having a gun by the side of the bed and her fearing to go to the bathroom at night — it’s a primal fear.
Freedman, Twigs’ attorney, said: “It is clear Mr. LaBeouf … continues to hide behind his alcoholism as a way of rationalizing his abusive behavior.”
LaBeouf vaulted to fame at age 14, before going on to a string of major Hollywood films, including “Eagle Eye” and playing Indiana Jones’ son in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” But behind his glossy trajectory lies a troubled childhood.
He was brought up by his artist mom Shayna and dad Jeffrey, whom he claims was so abusive that the Vietnam vet once pointed a gun at his son during a PTSD flashback.
Jeffrey, now 72 and a former heroin addict, was placed on the sex offender registry for life after he was convicted of assault with attempt to commit rape in 1981 for attacking a stranger in her car. He lives in Costa Rica.
Shayna and Jeffrey — whom LaBeouf has claimed abused him verbally and mentally — split when their son was quite young. LaBeouf has recalled growing up poor in the then-rough Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles and overhearing his mother being raped in their apartment.
Even when young LeBeouf began acting as a child, landing a starring role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens,” he and his dad reportedly stayed in a cheap motel room next door to a pimp and prostitute.
Jeffrey’s cousin, also named Jeffrey LeBouef (who uses a different spelling of their surname), told The Post: “Jeff used to be quite a character. He was a clown, he was a rodeo rider. But he’s cleaned up his act. He’s not so wild anymore. He’s kicking back in Costa Rica, living the dream.”
Jeffrey seems to be close to his son, posting photos of him on Facebook and promoting “Honey Boy.”
Like his dad, LaBeouf has a long history of legal issues.
This past September, the actor was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft for an altercation with a man in June 2020. In 2014, he was arrested at Studio 54 for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Afterward, he entered treatment for alcoholism. In 2017, he was arrested in Savannah, Ga., for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and obstruction, with video showing the actor making racial remarks to a police officer. He was sentenced to a year of probation and to seek therapy to manage his anger and substance abuse issues.
But he has a reputation for being a professional at work. “I’ve worked with him a number of times and while he’s wacky, he’s never been anything but kind,” said a Hollywood source. “Someone like Shia … they do weird s–t to get into those roles. I’m not saying it’s okay, but it’s complicated as he’s dealing with addiction and maybe doesn’t have as much control over himself.”
Nick Spano who played LaBeouf’s older brother on “Even Stevens,” said he has nothing but good memories of him. “Shia was a brother to me and will always be a brother to me,” Spano told the Post. “All I can say about what’s happening is that I trust Shia is man enough to step up and solve the problem. He’s in AA and has been trying to recover from his addictions and I hope he will.”
So does Twigs. “She feels very gratified by the outpouring supporting her and other women who have come out and said that this happened to them,” her friend said. “This should not be a conversation shrouded in secrecy and shame.”
Additional reporting by Dana Kennedy
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