Shia LaBeouf had to endure real-life pain while filming army movie to ensure it was as real as possible
Shia LaBeouf is no stranger to bringing as much realism to a movie as possible.
The Transformers actor, 38, whose on-set antics left Jon Bernthal stunned, once again took things to the edge on the set of a 2015 army movie.
Directed by Dito Montiel, the psychological thriller centres around Gabriel Drummer (LaBeouf), a marine who comes home from a traumatic tour in Afghanistan.
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Returning with severe PTSD, Gabriel is forced to go on a desperate search for his estranged wife, Natalie (Kate Mara), and their young son.
Coming back to a post-apocalyptic landscape, the father is joined by his best friend and fellow Marine, Devin Roberts (Jai Courtney), to help find his family.
Gary Oldman also stars as the hard-nosed Captain Peyton.
Titled Man Down, you can take a look at at the trailer below:
Now, during one scene, LaBeouf said he wanted it to feel as real as possible by getting sprayed in the face by actual pepper spray.
"I'm scared I'm not good enough," he explained to Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet in 2016.
"It's like when you go bowling, [and] you put up the bumpers.
"You might be able to hit a strike without the bumpers but why not put the bumpers up?
"The guy who did it to me, this guy named Nick Jones Jr., who is my heart, he is the Marine I went through this whole thing with.
"He knew how to do it in a safe way, so it just seemed like an easier thing than to have to conjure it.
"We just did it twice real quick. Just really fast.
"It wasn't really that crazy… every Marine does it."
His co-star Courtney said she remembered the pepper spray scene, and claims LaBeouf took it very well.
"He's a trooper. He just went for it but I'm sure it sucked," she said.
"I think he'd been worked up a little too much and he was a little too prepared. He was prepared for it to be worse than it was, but he's a tough dude."
Despite the promising cast, it seems Man Down was not very well received, scoring just 16 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
One critic said: "Man Down attempts to cram a murky mass of plot and emotion into an hour-and-a-half of screen time. In the process, little of its meaning survived, and we're left with an appalling film."
Topics: Shia LaBeouf, Celebrity, Film
Anish Vij