Shia LaBeouf is my spirit animal. The innocent little lad we all knew from Even Stevens has grown into an enigmatic and charismatic raw ball of unpredictability.
He's a fantastic actor, which makes his off-screen antics all the more fascinating, captivating and all-encompassing. Whether he's watching all his movies back-to-back or going up and down in a lift all day, for some reason completely unknown to me, I want to experience Shia's bonkers existence right alongside him. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.
But not everyone is on his side. In fact, many believe he's unhinged and needs help rather than encouragement in his current lifestyle. Having dealt with so much fame at so young an age, many can see Shia going the same way as fellow child stars Lindsay Lohan and Macaulay Culkin, who've both battled drink and drug problems.
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At just ten years old Shia began his career as a stand up comedian. Born to a Jewish mother and Cajun father in 1986, Shia was raised around two cultures. Though he identifies as Jewish, he has previously stated he was 'raised around both sides'.
Describing his parents as 'hippies', Shia's childhood was difficult. Though they loved him and he loved them, he was subjected to verbal and mental abuse by his father, who once pointed a gun at his son in a Vietnam War flashback.
Despite the troubled childhood, Shia still supports his parents financially to this day.
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Money quickly consumed LaBeouf. The day after he decided to become an actor - to support his family, not because he wanted an acting career - he did a stand up routine for an agent who immediately took him on.
Apparently his 'disgustingly dirty' material, coming from the mouth of a ten-year-old, was the appeal.
After various minor roles, Shia's big break came in 2000 when he was cast as Louis Stevens in Even Stevens. For three years he 'grew up on that show' before being cast in Holes in 2003 and then Constantine starring Keanu Reeves in 2005.
Shia as Louis Stevens. Credit: Disney
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By 2007, at just 21 years old, Shia was hosting Saturday Night Live and had become a household name the world over. His next major role came as Sam Witwicky in Transformers that same year.
His next outing was as Indiana Jones' son in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but the less said about that movie the better. The same goes for most of those Transformers sequels too.
However performances as Jack Bondurant in Lawless (2012) and Boyd Swan in Fury (2014) cemented Labeouf as one of the top names in Hollywood, not just a child star riding a wave.
With his name firmly among the very best in the industry, LaBeouf turned his interests to performance art. And this is where many have, perhaps misguidedly, thought LaBeouf is losing his mind.
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In January 2014, Shia was fending off accusations of plagiarism about his short film HowardContour.com. Many claimed it was eerily similar to Justin M. Damiano, a 2007 comic by Dan Clowes. He later apologised and removed the film, stating he never intended to copy Clowes but was simply inspired by him.
That set off a collaboration with British artist Luke Turner and Finnish performance artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö that would run to this very day.
In February 2014, walking out of the press conference for Nymphomaniac at the Berlin Film Festival, he quoted Eric Cantona's infamous 'seagulls' statement: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
Later that evening, he walked the red carpet with a paper bag over his head with the words, "I am not famous" on it.
Not two days later and LaBeouf was sat in his tuxedo and the brown paper bag in a Los Angeles gallery as part of an exhibition called #IAMSORRY. Visitors could come into the room one-at-a-time as he sat crying before being offered to choose on item from a table of 'implements'.
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It was met with extremely mixed reviews, with some claiming it was amazing while others said the whole experience was 'genuinely disturbing'.
But that didn't stop him.
Next up was the skywriting over Los Angeles with the message #StartCreating, reportedly in response to his previous skywriting escapade where he'd written the message #StopCreating in response to Clowes' lawyer's letter about plagiarism.
Then in May 2014, Shia jumped rope for an hour via a live Skype link for a performance entitled Meditation for Narcissists.
And who can forget JUST DO IT. Honestly, the full version is one of the most intense things I've ever watched. See below if you don't believe me...
Most recently, he watched all his movies back-to-back in #AllMyMovies with a camera live streaming his reactions. He didn't sleep for the entire thing and invited fans to come and watch them with him for free. Several times fans came up for autographs and were removed from the theatre. If you saw it, Shia crying at the Even Stevens movie was one of the saddest things I've ever sat through.
Then he spent three days in Liverpool on the end of a phone with fans encouraged to call him and talk to him about life. One of our own writers rang him for most of one afternoon to tell him Transformers was shite.
Then he spent a day going up and down in a lift. And now he's walking across America.
But it's not just his public persona that has been so strange for the viewing public. His relationships have never really been stable, having admitted to getting intimate with Isabel Lucas and Megan Fox while they were both in relationships of their own.
Isabel Lucas (left), Megan Fox and Shia (right). Credit: PA
From 2004 to 2007 he dated China Brezner but the break up left him 'rebuilding after a tornado'.
Shia LaBeouf is an enigma.
Unlike all the other child stars who've gone to ruin, it always seems like he's in control of what he's up to. He's making conscious decisions to be so unconventionally brilliant.
It's not been an easy road to this birthday but it's been an eventful one. At 30 years old and finally seeming entirely content with himself, we can only hope Shia has many more years dazzling, surprising, fascinating and captivating his fans as he's been able to do with me.
Happy 30th birthday Shia. Here's to many more.
Words by George Pavlou
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Shia LaBeouf