Crash And Burn - The Shia LaBeouf Story

TL;DR

Shia LaBeouf's Hollywood collapse stemmed from a decade of alcoholism, plagiarism scandals, bizarre PR stunts, and abuse allegations that erased his A-list status.

Key Points

• 1.LaBeouf rose to fame through massive franchises before his demons took hold. Transformers (2007) grossed $700M worldwide, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made him the face of two major franchises simultaneously, with The Hollywood Reporter naming him a generational talent.
• 2.Alcohol addiction was the foundation of his self-destruction. Arrested for public intoxication in 2007, he caused a major car crash in 2008 that forced Michael Bay to rewrite Transformers 2, and arrests and rehab stints became a recurring pattern throughout his career.
• 3.A plagiarism scandal and bizarre performance art phase destroyed his credibility. He plagiarized a filmmaker's short film, then issued an apology itself plagiarized from Yahoo Answers; he followed this with stunts like wearing a paper bag at Berlin and his viral 'Just Do It' motivational rant.
• 4.Abuse allegations from FKA Twigs proved the career-ending blow. Despite brief redemptive performances in Nymphomaniac and Fury, FKA Twigs sued him for multiple forms of abuse; Netflix quietly removed his Pieces of a Woman awards campaign and Olivia Wilde dropped him from Don't Worry Darling.
• 5.LaBeouf's final fall confirms his permanent exile from Hollywood's A-list. His last notable role was in Francis Ford Coppola's box-office disaster Megalopolis, and he recently gained headlines again for a drunk, homophobic altercation in New Orleans that ended in arrest.