Whoa - has anyone slammed Shia for wanting to expand and elevate his career? No. What irritates those of us who have a problem with him is that he's basically saying "doing this movie is beneath me, and I hate that I have to do it." When in fact, this franchise has given him the opportunity to elevate and advance his career. He could just as easily said "Doing these movies has opened a lot of doors for me, and I'll get a lot of opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise."

He's basically saying "I can't wait to be done with these stupid movies" - which I'm sure the executives are thrilled about. He's the star of the franchise, and part of his job is promoting the franchise, because there are many many people involved who don't get million dollar paychecks and who have livelihoods dependent on the work they do on these films - so maybe he should suck it up and put a positive spin on things when he speaks publicly.

Otherwise he needs to STFU.

 

That's really a black and white way of saying it. Generalizing and generalizing until Shia said exactly what you want him to say?

I see where you are coming from but I didn't read the part where he is ungrateful for what's been 'given' to him (not given per se since it's still a job). Besides, this isn't the only interview he has given the last 3 or 4 years either, so it's a bit hard to judge him and say he should give things a positive spin - I'm pretty sure he's being very positive on the films he worked on on various occassions.

I have a feeling some people are predetermined to not like him, thus everything he says is given the negative spin. He has every right to say that after 2 or 3 TF movies (+Eagle Eye, Indy4, etc.), and working on a movie that required him to act a different type of character, he's looking to expand his scope. Yet, he also says he's not going to deliver half work on TF3: he's an actor and he's going to do his job. Plus, he likes it as a fan/kid. Isn't that enough? I guess not.

If you're going to round off every decimal halfway through an equation, the end result is not the number it's supposed to be.
If you're going to generalize and interpret every single sentence mr. LaBeef says negatively, the end result is something he's not saying.

 

 

The ego's finally got to him.

 

"My mind hates the fact that I’m going back to transformers 3".

There's a quote, not a generalization. I'm not "spinning" his words into negativity. I can appreciate his desire to challenge himself as an actor, and I don't think anyone in their right mind goes into a Transformers movie thinking they're going to see masterful examples of the acting craft. But he's been around long enough (and around Hollywood elite) that he knows how the game is played.

Now, I don't think it's an outrageous leap of logic to assume that because of his stated quote, he would prefer to not do this movie (to put it nicely). Speaking from my own experience, if there's something to be done and I hate knowing I have to do it, that generally means I would prefer to not do it. But again - I'm not the lead actor in a very successful film franchise. And someone who is lucky enough to be shouldn't really come out and say "I wish I wasn't a part of this."

And he more or less was given the Transformers franchise - he was not an established star when he was hired. He is one now.

 

But now you chopped off the quote. He says "“My mind battles with me all the time. My mind hates the fact that I’m going back to transformers 3, but the kid in me loves it." and in fact, everything that comes after it serves as his explanation.

I've had a wonderful job with fun colleagues for a couple of years. Doesn't mean I didn't get up at days with my mind hating the fact that I had to go back to work. There's just these periods where the work isn't as fun, it's boring, tedious, dull. It happens everywhere.

And I had a relatively simple job compared to a big movie actor. I didn't have to work 6 days a week, working over 10 hours a day, acting, being highly active on all sorts of terrain, in the blistering sun, doing takes over and over again, for the third movie in a row.

Just because he/we know how it works doesn't mean he's not a human being with (what I think in this case are) pretty valid remarks.

'That's what he signed up for.' Maybe, but from what I am reading, he's going to do what he has to do, an actor doing his job, hopefully the best he can: “But that doesn’t mean that I’m any less dedicated to that movie being perfect. I wasn’t happy with the second movie and unless the third one is better than both, then we failed.”
He's dedicated. Doesn't mean he can't have doubts.

I agree that maybe he would prefer not to do this movie at this time- but I disagree that he's practically saying he doesn't want to be in. I've yet to read the part where he says he doesn't want to be part of the Transformers movie franchise, or movie 3.

When he says "My mind hates the fact that I’m going back to transformers 3, but the kid in me loves it." he's not outright saying he hates the fact he's going back. He's talking about the conflict between his mind, the mindset he's in : not looking forward to the hard work and doing the same role over again, and the fun he's having with it. He's not outright saying 'eff this movie, I don't like it'.

This is the tricky thing, though: it's easy, when he's talking about 'his mind', to assume that means he's talking about his full view on the matter, but that's not true. It's just one aspect. And I think it's human to have doubts like these.

My mind hates waking up every morning when the alarm clock goes off. I hate mornings? No I don't.

And I've yet to see the interview where he's ungrateful for that. Plus from what I recall, acting and making movies, especially fast paced Michael Bay movies, actually require working in some form. Yes, it opened the Hollywood gates for him, but that doesn't mean he's not working hard and that he doesn't deserve to have further ambitions than flailing his arms and going 'nononono!'.

I'm starting to sound like the Shia fanclub here..anyway I still do think you (and other people, this is of course much broader) are looking at it with a wrong angle.

Then again, I could be the one stuck in Positive land, maybe. The clouds are pink here! <3

 

 

But doesn't Shia realise it 'MUST BE GOOD' as it made lots of money.

[That's the way it works supposedly].

 

I can't argue with that logic. Mostly because I don't understand it.

 

So the guy rattles off a few meaningless sentences, and here we are, 100+ posts later, still bitching.

 

Then you don't understand what Shia LaBeefcake is saying, either.  

 

Given the number of actors who don't work with Bay any more can we really say that Shia might be the only actor who considers the Bay sort of films beneath them? I mean he is one of the first actors who haven't had a choice in working with Bay on three films so can we say that other actors might feel the same about oh gosh I've got to go do a third film?

Plus in a way he is sort of promoting the franchise by saying the second movie was bad and we really need to pick up our game or we've failed. For some people hearing that the production team thinks they need to pick up their game because they failed people last time is a move in the right direction. Saying you are sorry and need to do a better job installs a bit more confidence than saying nothing was wrong so start worrying that we might do more of the same.

 

First off that's a bit unfair, because other than DiCaprio and Scorcese or Depp and Burton, it's pretty uncommon for an actor to continuously work with the same director. You could just as easily say "the number of actors who don't work with Spielberg anymore." That was just a slight at Bay that you couldn't pass up, and really has nothing to do with the topic.

Again, just a chance for you to get a dig in at Bay. If anything, Shia is complaining about doing a Transformers movie, not a Bay movie.

 

Well actually you could say how many actors don't work with Spielberg, with Peter Jackson, with James Cameron, with Sam Raimi, or any other director with several films under their belt. Since we haven't worked with any of these directors it's hard to say why some actors keep coming back to the same directors and the same sort of films while other actors move on to other things.

And I think it's impossible to separate the current film franchise from Micheal Bay. He's been really clear that he's putting his own spin on things so they are very much Micheal Bay films for both the good that it brings and the bad that it brings. You might as well try to separate Peter Jackson from the Lord of the Rings since it was Peter Jackson's interpretation of the books. So yes the director is part of the topic.

 

But Sam went to Autobot Heaven!! It is and always has been his DESTINY!!!

 

hilarious how this thread has become the defenders of the faith turning against their lancelot because he had the balls to offer constructive critisism. I think it's brave of shia, albeit a bit late, to say what he said, and hopefully it will lead to a better movie being made. Still, with king bay at the helm, all descent will be squashed for the greater glory of his genius vision.
reminds me alot of george lucas actually.

 

Shia was about the only new flavor the movie-verse had to offer that I actually kinda enjoyed. Everything else, not so much.

Hopefully he comes back and challenges himself to put the best performance of his life in the 3rd and it becomes the best of the 3.

Edit: Rodimus agrees with Roy^.