Shia LaBeouf won big at the Hollywood Film Awards on Sunday night, but during his acceptance speech, he talked about a time when his life wasn't so glamorous.
While accepting the Breakthrough Screenwriter Award for his autobiographical film Honey Boy, LaBeouf gave a shout-out to the police officer who arrested him in 2017 for public drunkenness, disorderly conduct and obstruction. "I want to thank the police officer who arrested me in Georgia for changing my life," he said. After thanking the cop, he went on to sing the praises of his therapist and his sponsor "for saving my life" before thanking his parents "for giving me life."
Back in July 2017, the former Disney star was refused a cigarette by a bystander in Savannah. This led to him becoming "disorderly, using profanities and vulgar language in front of the women and children present," police said in a statement to E! News at the time. "He was told to leave the area and refused, becoming aggressive toward the officer. When the officer attempted to place LaBeouf under arrest, LaBeouf ran to a nearby hotel."
LaBeouf, now sober, has since said his arrest was the climax of his struggle with alcohol, calling the incident, which was caught on camera, "mortifying" in an interview with Esquire.
More recently, the actor has credited his Peanut Butter Falcon co-star Zack Gottsagen for calling out his behavior on set. (The duo were filming the flick when he was arrested.)
"He basically looked me in the eye and said don't—I'm going to paraphrase—but, 'Don't f*@k this up for me, this is my only chance," he admitted on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "I had made promises to him and talked to his parents and if you can empathize with that position where you're looking at somebody you deeply love and had made promises to and know that he's done everything right and that you have a disease that is going to f*@k up everything and that so much is riding on this. I felt all of that."