Shia LaBeouf is known for doing strange things. Once known as the adorable child actor in Disney Channel’s hit show Even Stevens, he now behaves inappropriately in public on occasion. He even wore a paper bag over his head at last year’s Berlin Film Festival.
These days Shia LaBeouf considers much of what he does “performance art.” While working on his latest masterpiece, the actor set out early Friday morning to occupy an elevator at EC Oxford in the U.K. for a period of 24 hours. His only break from the elevator was to come in the form of a talk he planned to give–no doubt about his art–in between. The purpose of spending time in the elevator is to consider the ups and downs celebrities experience.
Um, okay.
Called #Elevate, the entire thing is was being live-streamed on YouTube.
Shia LaBeouf is live-streaming himself in an elevator for 24 hours #ELEVATE https://t.co/CnsxNya9aY pic.twitter.com/cJgFLM0faD
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) February 20, 2016
According to Entertainment Weekly, Shia LaBeouf boarded the elevator at 9 a.m. Friday and planned to give it up at 9 a.m. on Saturday. When they shared their report, LaBeouf was riding up and down, sharing the elevator with fellow riders, many of whom asked him questions.
Shia LaBeouf is hanging out in an elevator and live streaming it for a full day https://t.co/WZ2BUgTExl pic.twitter.com/TPIGods5Bp
— The Verge (@verge) February 19, 2016
“If you were a fruit, which would you be?” one person asked him.
Another asked what the most interesting or fun or difficult moment in Shia LaBeouf’s life has been.
“The last couple years have been pretty interesting,” he said. “Just because it’s been a lot of turmoil and also a lot of positive. It’s been a lot of extremes. It’s been a very extreme couple years.”
It’s definitely been a couple of extreme years for Shia LaBeouf. In addition to the aforementioned bizarre behavior, he also performed in a film–Nymphomaniac–having sex while the cameras were rolling. In 2014 he was arrested when he interrupted a Broadway performance of Cabaret. In 2015 he was arrested for public intoxication.
Watch a livestream of Shia LaBeouf riding an elevator his 24-hour performance piece #ELEVATE https://t.co/lzBaGhK9Df
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 19, 2016
Do you think Shia LaBeouf is just plain nuts? Has he lost his mind, and is now trying to disguise that fact by engaging in “performance art?”
Alas Shia LaBeouf hasn’t given up his acting for performance art. He will soon appear on the big screen in American Honey, alongside Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough. It hits theaters later in 2016.
Watch Shia LaBeouf lock himself in an elevator for 24 hours – all in the name of art https://t.co/xu7GKDdXBA pic.twitter.com/0SA50suJ7g
— People Magazine (@people) February 19, 2016
What’s your take on Shia LaBeouf? Is there a fine line between mental illness and his form of performance art?