Whatever you thought #ALLMYMOVIES was about, you were probably wrong. Or maybe you were right! It’s kind of hard to tell. Shia LaBeouf’s reactions to every one of his films won over over both critics and those of us at home, making #ALLMYMOVIES, in the actor’s words, a big success. In his first interview with NewHive (which hosted the livestream) since his strange movie marathon, LaBeouf said that the project helped him feel ownership over his name for the first time. “I used to order my coffee and when they’d say, ‘Hey what’s your name?’ I’d say James, because I didn’t want them to say my name,†he said. “And today it’s just something different … This shit changed my coffee order name, which in turn, changed my sense of self.â€
LaBeouf also talked about the experience being moved while watching Even Stevens with a big crowd:
The Even Stevens Movie was interesting, it’s all of our childhood. It’s mine and it’s yours. It wasn’t just me smiling like that. If you look at the freeze frames, everyone is smiling like wow, I remember Beans. I remember that stupid-ass song. We were all looking at our yearbook together and we’re all in the yearbook. It felt like family, we were sitting there like a high school class.
And how he made it through his worst movies:
I think it started after Lawless. When the movies started getting shit. I’m telling you. When the movies started getting shit and they knew that I felt it too, it was the shared secret that we all had…not just because I’m in it…I’m in the same boat as you, I’m a viewer in this and this is hard for me to watch too. In fact, I’m gonna go take a nap ‘cause I hate myself, not ‘cause I’m tired, but because I’m dying right now. And nobody had a problem with that. When I woke up an hour later and watched Transformers 2 they could feel when I sunk in my seat. That’s not a performative thing. That’s me going through some kind of crisis. And I’m not the only one. I remember right before I fell asleep I looked next to me and the guy next to me was falling asleep. You can see it on the screenshot we’re both asleep. And the guy behind us is asleep.
And then there’s LaBeouf’s heartening anecdote about how he felt leaving the theater:
I walked out loving myself. Not in some grandiose, you’re fucking awesome way, but in like, you’re a part of a community. You’re a part of this human thing. You’re in this human thing. I’ve always felt as though, “I’m just an animal in this human thing. And I’ll play the human game. I’ll wear the human mask.†But coming out of there, it’s the first time I’ve actually felt part of this —it was very humanizing for me. I walked out loving myself. And I don’t think I was the only one to feel that.
Read the full interview here.