Shia LaBeouf has proven himself to be every bit as troubled as he is talented, with the actor in the midst of another sabbatical as he attempts to sort out his personal life. His penchant for getting a little too deep into preparing for his performances has caused plenty of issues in the past, with John Hillcoat’s Lawless a notable case in point.
In order to embody the part of Jack Bondurant, not only did LaBeouf gain 40 pounds, but he also sought to replicate his character’s reckless and hard-drinking lifestyle. As a result, he drank an absolute ton of moonshine, so much so that he became increasingly aggressive, to the extent that co-star Mia Wasikowska reportedly tried to quit the movie.
He was also notorious for getting into scraps with Tom Hardy during their downtime, one of which resulted in the Venom star tumbling down several flights of stairs. In the end, LaBeouf did a decent turn in a crime thriller that didn’t quite live up to the pre-release hype, but it was hardly worth the hassle he caused both himself and others.
It’s a perfectly functional and fitfully entertaining period piece packed top-to-bottom with great acting, but Lawless doesn’t quite stick in the memory in the way that it really should have done. That being said, it’s back with a vengeance on Netflix as per FlixPatrol, having crashed right into the platform’s most-watched list today.