Shia LaBeouf Interview, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Shia LaBeouf has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors. His natural talent and raw energy are quickly earning him a reputation as one of the most promising young thespians working today.

2008 was a stellar year for LaBeouf. He starred in the highly anticipated fourth installment of Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones” series, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” opposite Harrison Ford; teamed with director D.J. Caruso for a second time on the thriller “Eagle Eye” co-starring Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson and Michael Chiklis; and appeared with Julie Christie and John Hurt in the Anthony Minghella-scripted segment of “New York, I Love You,” a romantic anthology. LaBeouf will be seen next in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” directed by Michael Bay.

Two years have passed since Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) and the Autobots saved the human race from the invading Decepticons. Now he’s preparing for the biggest challenge of his life: leaving home for college. When things go predictably awry, Sam’s guardian robot Bumblebee, sexy girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox), and testosterone-charged field commanders Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and USAF Master Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson) come to his rescue.

Shia LaBeouf is a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new film:

MoviesOnline: What was it like making a film where you have no concept of what the final product will look like?

SHIA LABEOUF: You have no concept of what you’re gonna see at the end of the thing. Mike (Michael Bay) can tell you up and down, swear to you what it’s gonna look like, and there’s no way that you can wrap your head around what he’s talking about until you see it.

MoviesOnline: What about the physical and emotional nature of a premise-driven film?

SHIA LABEOUF: The movie is very, very, very, very physical and it’s more emotional this time. There’s more character things going on which is crazy to say for a ‘Transformers’ movie, you know, but this is a premise-driven movie. It’s almost like what Cinescope movies used to be, you know? People used to go to Cinescope movies regardless of what the theme or the premise was at all. It was just a Cinescope movie. So, I think the first time we had our movie come out, it was sort of ‘Transformers’ and CG and where the technology was, it was almost a Cinescope film. People almost came in just for the technology.

MoviesOnline: How do you make something like this bigger and badder with interesting characters?

SHIA LABEOUF: How do we make it bigger, better, stronger, faster, smarter, funnier? How do we do all those things? You start adding characters, and the characters that we added are just gangbusters. Like Ramon’s stuff is just…phew! Hysterical! Isabel’s very interesting. She has a very, very interesting arc in her character.

MoviesOnline: What about the interaction between the humans and the robots?

SHIA LABEOUF: The interaction between the robots and the humans is just more of a relationship. As opposed to human and alien, now it’s almost like friends. Like Bumblebee has his own arc. Sam’s going through boy-to-man, but Bumblebee’s going through the same type of thing. So, to watch that happen with Bumblebee and watch his confidence grow in a character that doesn’t even exist, is fun for a multitude of reasons. And the human-robot interaction, like I said, is just more tangible. You can literally start to see indentations on faces and men getting grabbed, and you can start seeing these things, ‘cause that coupled with Michael Bay’s eye in terms of action, it’s a really fun, explosive, outrageous, fantastical joyride of a film.

MoviesOnline: How was it making “Tranformers” with Megan Fox?

SHIA LABEOUF: It’s been a blessing for both of us to go through it together, because we both deal with different types of things.

MoviesOnline: There are some pretty record-breaking practical effects in this film, aren’t there?

SHIA LABEOUF: This is the biggest practical effects ever dealt with, or [that] have ever been done in film. There’s a man named John Fraser who handles all of our practical effects, and he’s been doing this since forever. And he said that he’s never done explosions or rigged things this big ever in the history of his career. He’s been doing this for close to 70 years now, which is outrageous. So, seven decades of filmmaking led up to whatever’s coming in ‘Revenge.’ And it’s literally Guinness World Records for size of explosions with actors in it.

MoviesOnline: How long does it take to rig one huge explosion?

SHIA LABEOUF: It took them seven months to rig a 1,000-gallon gasoline explosion that they then put us in the middle of and told us to run. Seven months, you know? That’s longer than we were shooting. They were rigging one explosion longer than our entire filming schedule. It’s an outrageous blast, and I’ll never feel anything like it again, and nobody that was on that set will ever experience anything close to what we just saw.

MoviesOnline: What was it like trying to film in the middle of real military war games?

SHIA LABEOUF: We were literally in battle simulation. It wasn’t made for the movie. It wasn’t because of Michael Bay. They were doing Persian Gulf Naval training, and we show up like, “Hey, we’re gonna film a movie.” And they’re like, “No. You’re in the middle of war games. We’ll tell you when to film.”

MoviesOnline: What about character development? How is this movie better than the first one?

SHIA LABEOUF: Well, you got Devastator. You got a lot of Construction stuff. You got certain elements from ‘Beast Wars Transformer’ days. The characters start to have layers, like I was talking about with Bumblebee. Bumblebee looked cute and all, but what was he? Who was he? Why is he the way he is? Why is he so rambunctious and why is Optimus not as rambunctious. [These are] questions that need answers just for any human watching the film. This movie has those answers. This movie also has bigger laughs than the first one. People have been really excited about it.

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” opens in theaters on April 24^th.