9 hours ago
10
The actor Shia LaBeouf has said he believes he needs to sort out his “small man complex” rather than undergo another round of substance abuse treatment after his recent arrest on allegations that he battered three men at a New Orleans bar while hurling homophobic slurs at them.
In an interview posted Saturday on YouTube by the online outlet Channel 5, the Transformers film franchise star also acknowledged “big gay people are scary” to him. Yet, perhaps providing a glimpse at a potential court defense, he also argued that the violence at the center of his arrest erupted only after his alleged victims touched him in a way that made him uncomfortable.
“My behavior [is] bullshit. I gotta deal with that,” LaBeouf remarked in the interview. “Does that mean I gotta go to rehab again? I’m just not into it, bro.”
He continued: “I don’t think my answers are there. I don’t. I really, genuinely, don’t. If I genuinely did, I’d go. I don’t think I have a different problem.”
LaBeouf said he instead needed to deal with what he portrayed as “a different problem”.
“I think I have a small man complex,” LaBeouf told Channel 5’s Andrew Callaghan.
He also said: “I’m gonna address it … I think it’s something that has to do with anger and ego moreso than my drinking, but that’s where I’m at now on my journey, and I’m trying to navigate it.
“I’ll figure it out.”
The 39-year-old’s comments stem from his arrest on suspicion of misdemeanor battery at the R Bar in New Orleans’s Marigny section early on 17 February, which was the festive Mardi Gras holiday in the city. He was purportedly asked to leave at about 12.45am but allegedly punched two men and head-butted a third while calling them all anti-gay slurs.
LaBeouf was initially arrested in connection with the punching accusations, which involved one man who identifies as queer and another who dresses in drag, with both having reported that he called them “faggots”. He was soon released on his own recognizance after that initial arrest, meaning he did not have to post bond.
He was seen later that day on New Orleans’s famous Bourbon Street, a prime locale for Mardi Gras revelry.
At a preliminary criminal court hearing Thursday, New Orleans judge Simone Levine made LaBeouf post a $100,000 bond to remain out of custody and ordered him to undergo drug testing as well as enroll in substance abuse treatment.
Levine further made LaBeouf take a drug and alcohol test in the courthouse. Without discussing the specific findings, she said the test result left her concerned that LaBeouf “does not take his alcohol addiction seriously”.
LaBeouf, who is described in records as a New Orleans resident, sprinted away from reporters after making bail and leaving the courthouse where Levine works.
By Friday, police in the city had obtained a warrant to arrest him with allegations that he had struck a third man – by head-butting him – and insulted him with homophobic slurs at the R Bar 10 days beforehand. He turned himself over to the custody of authorities prior to a bail court hearing on Saturday afternoon.
Magistrate commissioner Jonathan Friedman during that hearing set a separate $5,000 bail for LaBeouf. LaBeouf soon made bail again to secure his release from jail pending the outcome of the case.
LaBeouf’s Channel 5 interview dropped online Saturday morning before his hearing in front of Friedman. At one point in the conversation, he mentioned his “traditional Catholic” faith as he often does and remarked: “I’ll be honest with you – big gay people are scary to me.”
He continued: “I’m like, standing by myself and three gay dudes are next to me, touching my leg – I get scared.
“I’m sorry – if that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”
Attempts to contact two of LaBeouf’s alleged battery victims – one a bar staffer and another a patron – to discuss that portion of the Channel 5 interview weren’t immediately successful. The third alleged victim declined comment.
LaBeouf’s assertions to Channel 5 came amid widespread speculation in New Orleans’s legal community that he could be charged under a state hate crimes law that allows for enhanced penalties against anyone who victimizes another person on “the actual or perceived” basis of certain categories such as gender or sex.
Meanwhile, a state law in effect in New Orleans also authorizes people to use a reasonable amount of violence “to prevent a forcible offense against [them]”.
A lot of the case that led to LaBeouf’s arrest was captured on cellphone videos. In video viewed by the Guardian, he can be seen directing the word “faggot” at one of the alleged victims, along with telling police: “I didn’t shove nobody – I never touched nobody.”
He nonetheless told Callaghan in the interview on Saturday: “I am wrong for touching anyone, ever. And that’s the end of my statement on this whole shit.”
A statement from LaBeouf’s private defense attorney, Sarah Chervinsky, maintained that “no regular person would be required to post over $100,000 in bonds and be jailed two separate times for one misdemeanor incident”.
Chervinsky’s statement additionally contended: “Just as he does not deserve preferential treatment, Mr LaBeouf also does not deserve to be treated more harshly by the police and courts just because he is a public figure.”
LaBeouf’s New Orleans arrest is not his only brush with the criminal court system in the US. While being arrested in 2014 over allegations that he disrupted a Broadway show in New York City, LaBeouf was accused of insulting a police officer with the homophobic slur “fag”.
He was recorded saying police were racist and a Black officer on the scene would go to hell during a 2017 disorderly conduct arrest in Savannah, Georgia, that led to an earlier court-mandated stint in rehab.
LaBeouf’s Channel 5 interview was a more eloquent response about the allegations against him in New Orleans than that which he offered a Guardian journalist who had previously approached him about the matter.
He told that journalist: “Get your ass up out of here, you silly bitch.”
