Andreas Rentz/Getty ImagesLet us preface this list by saying that something's obviously going on with Shia LaBeouf lately. Whether that amounts to a performance art performance or publicity scheme or cry for help, who's to say?
What we can say is that Shia has acted rather—hmm, how shall we put this?—weird. Below, we've ranked his weirdest choices, starting with relatively normal behavior and ending with what we simply cannot explain.
11. Bashing Indy 4: In 2010, at the Cannes Film Festival, Shia admitted that he and director Steven Spielberg "dropped the ball" on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Harrison Ford later called Shia "a f--king idiot" for critiquing the film, but no. Shia was right. That movie is awful.
10. Nymphomaniac: Shia has dabbled in big-franchise, leading-man, movie-star stuff, which may make his latest movie seem like a weird choice for a number of reasons (not the least of which is that its director Lars Von Trier once said he was a Nazi). But hey, it's getting good reviews?
9. Though sending Lars Von Trier a d--k pic to get the role is a little weird.
8. Plagiarizing His Directorial Debut: In 2012, Shia premiered his directorial debut, the short film HowardCantour.com, at Cannes. A year later, it surfaced online and people immediately recognized that he had plagiarized a comic by Daniel Clowes. They immediately recognized it because Shia blatantly stole all of the dialogue word-for-word from Clowes. Shia apologized.
It happens. (It shouldn't happen, but it does happen. So is plagiarizing weird? We'd probably use a different adjective. And it could be argued that everything that has happened since this has been just an attempt to cover up the fact that he was caught plagiarizing. You know, like when you trip and just keep running to make it look like the never tripped in the first place.)
7. Apologizing for Plagiarizing: This is the tipping point on the list from normal(ish) behavior to not normal, weird behavior. Shia apologized for plagiarizing (normal behavior) and then would not stop apologizing (not normal behavior). Then he started plagiarizing his apologies. The he rented a skywriter to write his apologies in the sky and everything went to s--t.
6. Doing LSD for a Movie Role: To go Method for his movie The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, Shia dropped acid. Which is weird. This is even weirder: Costar Rupert Grint watched Shia trip and said Shia "smashed the place up, got naked and kept seeing this owl." That's your brains on drugs, kids! This is the weirdest: The script said ecstasy, not acid.
5. Retiring from "Public Life": What a weird, not-real, celebrity thing to do. Shia played the victim card after being called out for plagiarizing and tweeted, "In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life." (Spoiler alert: He didn't really retire. If anything, now we see him even more.)
4. That Bag: Shia walked the red carpet at the International Film Festival Berlinale wearing a paper bag over his head that said "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE." He tweeted that same thing on January 13 (and has tweeted it every day since then. Weird.) Wearing this bag was odd for a number of reasons: (1) It's hypocritical. Or just stupid. If you're not famous anymore, don't walk a red carpet; and (2) It's terrifying. Nightmares, for sure.
3. Claiming All of This Was Just "Meta-Modernist Performance Art": Ugh, shut up, Shia. That's just weird and annoying.
2. His #IAMSORRY Art Installation: A grown-ass, adult man sitting in an empty room with a bag over his head, crying? Yeah, this is the most explicitly weird thing that Shia has done lately. But if he is just being weird for the sake of being weird, is it even really weird at this point? Just a thought.
1. Transformers: Dark of the Moon: What a weird choice to make this movie! It was so bad!