Bryan Cranston has issued a plea to Shia LaBeouf amid the Transformers star’s ongoing legal issues.
During a recent video interview with Esquire, Cranston was joined by his Malcolm in the Middle co-star Frankie Muniz, who revealed that he had originally been tapped to lead Holes, the 2003 family adventure that helped launch LaBeouf’s movie career.
“I was signed to be in the movie Holes, and it was 100 percent about to start filming, and then Cody Banks was greenlit. They were like, ‘Which one do you want to do?’” Muniz, 40, recalled. “I immediately picked Agent Cody Banks,” he added of the family action movie also starring Hilary Duff, “but I remember everyone pushing me to do Holes because of the story, and it’s a little more dramatic.”
Wondering what his career or life would have been had he chosen the latter instead, Muniz asked: “What could’ve come with it? Would I have been taken more seriously as an actor?”
“You could’ve had Shia LaBeouf’s life,” Cranston, 70, replied sarcastically, letting out a scoff and a whistle. “Keep that one in. Shia, get some help!”
The Independent has contacted LaBeouf’s representative for comment.
LaBeouf, 39, has faced a slew of legal issues in recent years stemming from his erratic behavior. In February, he was arrested and charged with two simple counts of battery after getting into an alleged Mardi Gras brawl.
One of the alleged victims later spoke out, accusing LaBeouf of targeting him in a homophobic hate crime.
The actor was ultimately ordered to seek treatment and to pay a $100,000 bond. During the hearing, New Orleans Criminal District Court judge Simone Levine relayed her biggest concern was the possible danger LaBeouf poses not only to his alleged victims, but to the wider community as a whole, in particular the “marginalized community” that has faced so much “terror.”
Addressing the alleged bar fight in an interview with Channel 5, filmed a week after his initial arrest, LaBeouf admitted: “My behavior… I gotta deal with that. Does that mean I gotta go to rehab again? I’m just not into it, bro.
“I don’t think my answers are there. I don’t. I really, genuinely, don’t. If I genuinely did, I’d go. I don’t think I have a drinking problem… I think I have a different problem, and I’m gonna address it. I think I have a small man complex. I think it’s something that has to do with anger and ego more so than my drinking, but that’s where I’m at now on my journey, and I’m trying to navigate it. I’ll figure it out.”
LaBeouf was previously court-ordered to attend rehab in 2017, following an arrest in Georgia for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, Cranston and Muniz have reunited for the four-part Malcolm in the Middle reboot, Life’s Still Unfair. The revival picks up 20 years after the original sitcom’s conclusion in 2005. It follows Malcolm (Muniz), now the father of a teen, who is desperate to shield her from his dysfunctional parents and siblings.
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