Entertainment
Shia LaBeouf converts to Catholicism during research for 'Padre Pio' movie
"I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him," he said of being cast in the film.
August 25, 2022 5:54pm
Updated: August 25, 2022 7:50pm
Actor Shia LaBeouf said he converted to Christianity while shooting his upcoming film about the late Catholic mystic St. Padre Pino, who he portrays in the movie, and has become a member of the Roman Catholic Church.
The embattled actor revealed his conversion in a YouTube interview released Thursday with Bishop Robert Barron, who has a significant social media following, where he spoke about how his recent public scandals led him to the darkest place in his life.
"I didn't want to be alive anymore when all this happened. Shame like I had never experienced before — the kind of shame that you forget how to breathe. You don't know where to go. You can't go outside and get like, a taco," said LaBeouf.
"But I was also in this deep desire to hold on," he added.
Padre Pio was a Franciscan Capuchin friar famous (and controversial) for displaying stigmata – wounds of Jesus’s crucifixion – for most of his life. He died in 1968 at age 81 and was both beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
LaBeouf said he received the offer to play the saint when he had “nowhere else to go” but admitted he felt “tricked” by God when he began studying for and playing the role.
"I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him. Drawing me away from worldly desires. It was all happening simultaneously. But there would have been no impetus for me to get in my car, drive up [to the monastery] if I didn't think, 'Oh, I'm gonna save my career,'" he said in the interview.
The Transformers actor credits learning about the Christian understanding of sin and forgiveness from “people who have sinned far beyond anything I could ever conceptualize” for giving him hope and helping him move forward.
He also said in the interview that the traditional Catholic mass, celebrated in Latin, was key to both his conversion and his performance in the movie because of how “immersive” an experience it is.
LaBeouf was sued by ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs in 2020 alleging “relentless abuse” while they dated. The trial is set for April 2023.
Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde revealed this week that she fired LaBeouf to keep his co-star safe from his “combative energy” on-set.
