Shia LaBeouf is a Christian Man

Shia LaBeouf just made a movie, Fury, where he plays a WWII soldier whose faith gets him through war. Something happened during the filming.

I found God doing Fury. I became a Christian man, and not in a fucking bullshit way—in a very real way. I could have just said the prayers that were on the page. But it was a real thing that really saved me. And you can’t identify unless you’re really going through it. It’s a full-blown exchange of heart, a surrender of control.

But wait. There’s more.

I had good people around me who helped me. Brad [Pitt] was really instrumental in guiding my head through this. Brad comes from a hyper-religious, very deeply Christian, Bible Belt life, and he rejected it and moved toward an unnamed spirituality.

Did it go something like this?

BRAD is sitting on on the steps of a trailer, SHIA is squatting beside him.

SHIA: Tell me more, “Sensei.”

BRAD: (stares at other trailer, throws cigarette butt down, picks it back up) This might just look like a cigarette butt, OK? But it’s got the leaves, it’s got the tobacco leaves, man, that people grew and picked right here in this country, in America, man, and the cotton and the — fibers — that make up the filter and the paper — the cotton, grown in like, fuckin’ Kentucky, man, and all that other shit that goes in there — the shit that kills you (laughs, hits chest comically) — and it’s all right here, man. You might think this cigarette is gone, but it’s not. Everything it ever was, everything it ever will be? It’s all right here (Points to chest, gives another comedy cough). It all went into my body and now we are part of each other. And you and I (Pointing back and forth between them)? I may not ever see you again, man, but now we’re a part of each other, too. Because we had this thing, this conversation. It’s not just that I’m like fucking teaching you, man. You are giving yourself to me right here, and right now, and we are sharing that, and that will never go away. That’s what Jesus is like, man.

SHIA: (nods, takes hit off own cigarette, looks at other trailer breaks into a smile) That’s deep, man.

BRAD: (Reaches over, gives Shia a noogie, holds him there for a second)

PA’S VOICE IS HEARD: Shia, you are needed on the set.

SHIA: (Stands up, looks awkwardly at Brad for a second)

BRAD: Don’t look back, man. You go and do your own thing. (Chuckles and goes into the trailer)