The documentary Slauson Rec, about a free theater company Shia LaBeouf founded in South L.A., doesn’t show the star of Transformers, Honey Boy, and Megalopolis at his best. He shouts at students – all untrained actors – bangs on tables, throws chairs, storms out, etc. as he grows frustrated with the responsibility of leading the company.
But to his credit, LaBeouf hasn’t tried to stop the documentary or control the editorial vision of director Leo Lewis O’Neil, who shot 800 hours of Slauson Rec theater classes.
“There was a moment early on when I was still doing archival work, just filming class sessions early on, [when] something went kind of awry, tempers flared,” O’Neil explained as he and producer Matt Zien stopped by Deadline’s Cannes Studio. “And for that week’s archive, I texted Shia and said, ‘Hey, this moment that kind of went left, I can take it out if you want.’ And he said, ‘Fuck no, keep it in.’ And from that moment, I knew that that’s who he was, and he was going to be there scars and all.”
O’Neil added, “I realized that Shia was perhaps the most vulnerable artist I’d ever met in my entire life.”
Shia LaBeouf in ‘Slauson Rec’
Courtesy of Leo Lewis O’Neil
O’Neil and Zien said they thought the theater project filled an empty space for LaBeouf. “He talks about being lonely, about never feeling like he’s had any friends,” O’Neil said. “And so I think for him this was that. This was building a family of sorts.”
Observed Zien, “I think that he really had noble intentions, and I think that the reality is he bit off more than he could chew, and there was no turning around from that… I don’t think this was an experimental theater group set up with malicious intent at all. It did become something that was way too intense for the plan.”
Producer Matt Zien (left) and director Leo Lewis O’Neil at Deadline Studio at the 78th Cannes Film Festival at Deadline Studio on May 18, 2025 in Cannes, France.
Michael Buckner for Deadline
Slauson Rec premiered in Cannes Classics, a section of the storied festival devoted to restored cinematic masterpieces and documentaries on cinema artists.
“When we got this independently financed and we moved into our office, the first thing that Leo wrote on the brand-new whiteboard was, ‘We Cannes do it,’” Zien said. “And this was the dream. We Cannes do it. Because we looked at all the schedules of all the festivals, and this was our favorite. This is the festival that awards bold choices and new voices.”
Watch the full interview in the video above.
Title: Slauson Rec
Festival: Cannes (Cannes Classics section)
Director: Leo Lewis O’Neil
Panelists: Leo Lewis O’Neil (director); Matt Zien (producer)
Sales agent: WME
Running time: 146 min.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD, Cast & Crew and Final Draft.