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‘Shoulda listened to him’: An apoplectic Shia LaBeouf urged ‘Suicide Squad’ director to stay as far away from the movie as possible

"Shia LaBeouf: Voice of Reason" was not on the bingo card.

shia labeouf
Image via Shia LaBeouf/All My Movies

Hearing Shia LaBeouf cited as the voice of reason isn’t a sentiment you’re likely to hear all that often, but even when he weighed in on the prospect of his Fury director David Ayer making the leap to studio blockbusters with Suicide Squad, the controversial actor still managed to do so in his own bespoke way.

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By the time the two collaborated on the World War II tank thriller – which of course featured LaBeouf doing his tried-and-trusted shtick of going a little too method in his preparations – the former Disney star had sworn off big budget productions entirely after previously being positioned as one of the most bankable and popular young talents in the industry.

david ayer suicide squad
Image via Warner Bros.

As regaled by Jon Bernthal on his Real Ones podcast, though, the opinionated thespian didn’t even relay his concerns in private, but instead decided to rail against the mere notion of the filmmaker tackling Suicide Squad while Ayer was in the middle of talking to an A-lister about a potential role in the production.

“I remember being in some fancy room in some fancy-ass f*cking hotel, and you were meeting – I can’t probably f*cking talk about it – you were meeting like a very famous actor and horribly unlucky to you guys, you got seated next to me and Shia, meeting about Suicide Squad. And Shia got up. He was like, ‘What the f*ck, G?’ ‘Why are you doing this f*cking movie, f*ck you [gesturing at the star] for even wanting to be in this movie. You’re throwing it away, bro, don’t even do it.”

Summing up his feelings on what happened on Suicide Squad in a nutshell, Ayer then let out a sigh of resignation and said he “shoulda listened to him.” Hardly the most professional conduct from LaBeouf, but he did end up being proven right.