Shia LaBeouf's new interview with the Los Angeles Times contains only a sly reference to what (I'm assuming) everyone's been thinking about the 25-year-old actor for awhile now: He's described as "lean, shaggy-haired and smart alecky sometimes to the point of self-destruction." Yes, "smart alecky" is on the right track, but it's really more like, "glibly cocky" and "arrogant." Point is, it's hard to reconcile the vision of LaBeouf at age 20, when he was the august Disney Channel alum on the rise, with LaBeouf now: the overtly hotheaded, shabbily hirsute blockbuster star. Still, he gives memorable and inspired quotes, and that makes him an interview worth reading every single time. Here are our five, er, "favorite"* soundbites from LaBeouf's latest sitdown.
*"Favorite" might be code for "provocatively annoying." I'm not sure yet.
5. Shia tells how his girlfriend, "a Vietnamese American stylist he met at a karaoke club in Echo Park," is helping broaden his palate:
"Pâté? A cheese plate? That's a very 25-year-old deal," he says. "I can get down with some fig jelly and some cheese on a cracker."
4. Shia explains in the third-person that he is a bubbling cistern of possibility:
"There's this coming-of-age thing that's happening within me. I've come from family-fare, pop-culture, Steven Spielberg-safe, made-for-a-generalized-populace [projects], and I have these yearnings to do different things. Which way is this boy gonna go? I have no idea."
3. Shia revisits some endearing dialogue with Michael Bay:
"Yeah, it's a little feminine, but it touches me," LaBeouf says, starting to pepper his recollection with more expletives than are allowed in the PG-13 film. "I feel something when I hear it. ... But Mike doesn't want to listen to 'Brandy Alexander' under the rocket with 50 military dudes around... I take him aside, I'm like, 'Mike, this is the most important moment in the movie for me. The crux of my whole character, my whole arc. That doesn't work for me, dude.' ... Now it's two dudes ready to kill each other. ... Spit's flying."
2. Shia reveals that his truest enemy is himself:
"I've usually had something else to jump into, or I've got a start date. I'm trying to find a way to eat up time without being destructive, 'cause that's my go-to, it seems. I have a hard time with free time."
1. And finally, a quote I actually like:
"The way Steven [Spielberg] described it to me was, 'When Tom Cruise walks outside his house, he doesn't pick his nose. From the minute he leaves his door to the minute he comes back home, he doesn't pick his nose.' Now that's a certain way to live your life that I have no ambitions toward."
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is out in theaters this week.
· 'Transformers' actor Shia LaBeouf, rough edges and all [LAT]
[Photo: Getty Images]