![\"Shia](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\tThe documentary Slauson Rec, about a free theater company Shia LaBeouf founded in South L.A., doesn\u2019t show the star of Transformers, Honey Boy, and Megalopolis at his best. He shouts at students \u2013 all untrained actors \u2013 bangs on tables, throws chairs, storms out, etc. as he grows frustrated with the responsibility of leading the company.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut to his credit, LaBeouf hasn\u2019t tried to stop the documentary or control the editorial vision of director Leo Lewis O\u2019Neil, who shot 800 hours of Slauson Rec theater classes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere 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,\u201d O\u2019Neil explained as he and producer Matt Zien stopped by Deadline\u2019s Cannes Studio. \u201cAnd for that week\u2019s archive, I texted Shia and said, \u2018Hey, this moment that kind of went left, I can take it out if you want.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Fuck no, keep it in.\u2019 And from that moment, I knew that that\u2019s who he was, and he was going to be there scars and all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tO\u2019Neil added, \u201cI realized that Shia was perhaps the most vulnerable artist I\u2019d ever met in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tShia LaBeouf in \u2018Slauson Rec\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Leo Lewis O\u2019Neil<\/p>\n
\n\tO\u2019Neil and Zien said they thought the theater project filled an empty space for LaBeouf. \u201cHe talks about being lonely, about never feeling like he\u2019s had any friends,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cAnd so I think for him this was that. This was building a family of sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tObserved Zien, \u201cI 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\u2026 I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tProducer Matt Zien (left) and director Leo Lewis O\u2019Neil at Deadline Studio at the 78th Cannes Film Festival at Deadline Studio on May 18, 2025 in Cannes, France.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Buckner for Deadline<\/p>\n
\n\tSlauson Rec premiered in Cannes Classics, a section of the storied festival devoted to restored cinematic masterpieces and documentaries on cinema artists.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen we got this independently financed and we moved into our office, the first thing that Leo wrote on the brand-new whiteboard was, \u2018We Cannes do it,\u2019\u201d Zien said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWatch the full interview in the video above.<\/p>\n
\n\tTitle:<\/strong> Slauson Rec<\/p>\n \n\tFestival:<\/strong> Cannes (Cannes Classics section)<\/p>\n \n\tDirector:<\/strong> Leo Lewis O\u2019Neil<\/p>\n \n\tPanelists:<\/strong> Leo Lewis O\u2019Neil (director); Matt Zien (producer)<\/p>\n \n\tSales agent:<\/strong> WME<\/p>\n \n\tRunning time:<\/strong> 146 min.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD, Cast & Crew and Final Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The documentary Slauson Rec, about a free theater company Shia LaBeouf founded in South L.A., doesn\u2019t show the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[5839,53544,77,53545,53546,3943,18932,53547,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-119787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-cannes","9":"tag-cannes-studio","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-leo-lewis-oneil","12":"tag-matt-zien","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-shia-labeouf","15":"tag-slauson-rec","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114545857960952140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}