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Shia LaBeouf Says His Ambition Was Vilified While Timothée Chalamet’s Is Seen as “Cute”
May
Shia LaBeouf sees more than a little of himself in Timothée Chalamet — but says the world hasn’t treated their ambition the same way.
In a candid new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Megalopolis actor reflected on his own early desire to achieve greatness and contrasted the public’s perception of that drive with the praise Chalamet recently received for expressing a similar goal.
“I hear Timothée Chalamet get up and he says something like, ‘I want to be great,’” LaBeouf said. “I so know the feeling. On him, it’s cute. On me, it wasn’t cute. You know what I’m saying?”
LaBeouf was referring to Chalamet’s speech at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, in which the A Complete Unknown star boldly stated: “I want to be one of the greats.” Chalamet went on to list his inspirations: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, Viola Davis, Michael Jordan, and Michael Phelps. “I know we’re in a subjective business, but I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” he told the audience.
For LaBeouf, that same hunger for excellence has been a lifelong force — but one complicated by controversy and self-doubt. “Man, I’ve been searching for a long time,” he said. “I’m really like a pure actor. When I was young, I didn’t think that I required much help to do what I do. I was completely narcissistic and fearful and had a lack of trust.”
He admitted that mentorship was difficult for him early on, saying, “I’ve been under the tutelage of a lot of dudes who tried to mentor me, but I just didn’t trust them, or didn’t like what they made, or whatever.”
Asked if he considered himself a narcissist, LaBeouf didn’t shy away. “To get into this field, there’s a certain level of ego — a certain ego sickness that gets you into acting,” he said. “And now I’m trying to figure out what the healthy version of that looks like.”
LaBeouf also recalled a fraught moment with Alec Baldwin during rehearsals for Orphans in the early 2010s, which LaBeouf ultimately exited due to creative differences. “By the time Baldwin got there, it was almost unfair,” he said. “He’s dealing with my fractured little weak ego, all this hard prep that I’d done for two years, and my desperate need to show him all my prep, or that he would accept me somehow. I was so insecure. Well, that got contentious in the room. Then he got competitive.”
Years later, LaBeouf said he enrolled in an NYU acting class taught by Baldwin. Despite their rocky history, the two actors eventually reconciled. “Me and him are good because he’s gone through a lot. I’ve gone through a lot,” LaBeouf shared. “We’ve both been able to send each other love and make it right before all the madness happened on both sides. We made it right. He’s a good guy. He’s just like me. Fear will make you move different. I found it came from having absolutely no spiritual life.”
LaBeouf, who has long been both celebrated and criticized for his intense method acting and off-screen controversies, seems to be seeking a new chapter — one rooted not just in talent, but in growth.
