By Marty Dubecky, Digital Communications Manager

Actor Shia LeBeouf has come under scrutiny again as Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling continues to churn out celebrity drama. 

LeBeouf was originally slated to play a leading role in the film, which will now be played by Wilde’s partner Harry Styles. Wilde claimed that LeBeouf was fired from the project, alluding to his history of interpersonal and legal conflict. 

“His process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions,” Wilde said. 

LeBeouf claims he quit the project of his own accord due to scheduling issues. He released a video sent to him by Wilde while he was still involved in the film that appears to depict Wilde explaining that Florence Pugh, the other lead in the film, did not want to work with LeBeouf and asking for the two to reconcile their differences. 

In 2003, 17-year-old LeBeouf exploded onto the scene as Stanley Yelnats in Holes. An A-List child actor, LeBeouf starred in a stream of Transformer movies, the psychological thriller Disturbia and an appearance as Indiana Jones’s son.

However, his meteoric rise to fame gave way to arrests and controversy. He was the subject of a cartoon song painting him as a cannibal. LeBeouf later wore a bag over his head claiming that he “was not famous anymore” to promote Lars van Trier’s movie Nymphomaniac. He then assaulted an art student.

 In 2020, he starred in the movie Tax Collector. In the film, he was accused on social media of playing in “brown-face” and inappropriately portraying stereotypes associated with Mexican-American people in Los Angeles. 

Later that year, public scrutiny of LeBeouf deepened when singer/songwriter FKA Twigs sued LeBeouf for sexual abuse, assault and infliction of emotional distress. Since she came forward in 2020, two other women have made similar claims.

Since FKA Twig’s accusation, LeBeouf has since converted to Roman Catholicism. He has also rekindled his relationship with ex-wife Mia Goth, with whom he now has a daughter.

LeBeouf said he became Catholic while portraying the titular saint in the movie Padre Pio.  He later spoke with Bishop Robert Barron, the Los Angeles bishop heading the Word on Fire video series, about redemption.

In a Word on Fire video, LeBeouf stated that “suffering is actually a gift,” referring to his own claims that FKA Twigs’ accusations saved his life. He confessed to shooting dogs, knowingly passing on STDs to women and abusing past partners. But after the birth of his now five-month- old daughter, he has professed that he is a completely changed man. While reciting the rosary, a habit he picked up while filming Padre Pio, he said he heard a message telling him to rekindle his relationship with his mother.Amid this controversy, LeBeouf is set to appear in Francis Ford Coppola’s new project Megalopolis and the fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, directed by James Mangold.