Shia LaBeouf became overwhelmed by emotion while filming the upcoming drama The Rooster Prince, according to the film’s director.
Josh Penn Soskin, the writer and director behind The Rooster Prince, shared a first-person essay in Variety on Thursday (July 16), opening up about LaBeouf’s conduct during the making of his debut feature.
“Shia LaBeouf was exploding on set,” Soskin wrote, explaining that the actor plays a psychiatrist living with bipolar disorder. The film draws inspiration from Soskin’s late brother, David, who died by suicide in 2018 following brain tumor surgery.
“He was in deep pain. In fact, he was in even more pain than all the pain he was causing. This was the kind of pain I had seen in my late brother David’s eyes,” Soskin continued.
Filming for The Rooster Prince kicked off in November 2025. Soskin said LaBeouf, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, fully immersed himself in the role by memorizing David’s books and sleeping very little, to the point where it felt as though David was “speaking” through him.
The director described working on the film as both “ecstatic and painful,” comparing the experience to “an Ayahuasca trip.”
During a scene in a parking lot where LaBeouf was screaming, Soskin said he “lost a clear sense of what was movie and non-movie.”
“Those in the blast radius were rightfully scared and hurt. Shia had vanished,” Soskin recalled. “The producers were palpably nervous. I was about six inches from a panic attack.”
At one stage of production, LaBeouf sent Soskin a self-tape at 3 a.m. in which he improvised the line, “All I ask from you is that you treat me with maximum empathy.”
“It was as if Shia had embedded a piece of code into the rehearsal tape and was speaking to me, not the prison psychiatrist. Maximum empathy. Now I knew what to say,” the director wrote.
LaBeouf has also faced legal troubles in recent years. He filed a claim against his former girlfriend, artist FKA Twigs, accusing her of choosing to “invalidate the confidentiality provisions” of their 2025 settlement.
That same year, the ex-couple agreed to dismiss a lawsuit in which FKA Twigs alleged she had been a victim of domestic violence during their relationship with LaBeouf.
Separately, LaBeouf pleaded guilty in June to three counts of simple battery stemming from a physical altercation during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. He was sentenced to six months suspended, placed on two years of probation, and ordered to complete mandatory alcohol treatment.
