Shia LaBeouf Claims He’s Done With Hollywood Movies

Shia LaBeouf knows a thing or two about the ins and outs of Hollywood blockbusters. In addition to starring in the critically-panned Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a movie which found the young actor swinging through a monkey-infested jungle on vines, the Even Stevens alumnus has appeared in Michael Bay’s Transformers trilogy. Now, it would seem, the 26-year-old actor is ready to say goodbye to big-budget Hollywood fare.

“There’s no room for being a visionary in the studio system. It literally cannot exist,” LaBeouf explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “You give Terrence Malick a movie like ‘Transformers,’ and he’s f—d. There’s no way for him to exist in that world.”

In regards to the time he spent with the Transformers franchise, LeBeouf claims filming the flicks was akin to having a finger shoved up his backside. Instead of hanging around Hollywood studios, Shia is going to turn his attention to the indie film scene. Considering his experience on Bay’s films was obviously unpleasant, this may be for the best.

As for Voltage Pictures, the company that financed his latest flick, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, LaBeouf had nothing but high praise.

“These dudes are a miracle,” he says. “They give you the money, and they trust you — (unlike the studios, which) give you the money, then get on a plane and come to the set and stick a finger up your a– and chase you around for five months.”

Next up for Shia LaBeouf is the non-Hollywood project The Nymphomaniac, which was written and directed by Antichrist and Dogville mastermind Lars von Trier. The film also stars Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Given that von Trier makes complicated movies and LaBeouf is clearly a complicated person, the pairing is a match made in cinematic heaven.