Francis Ford Coppola, despite his well-documented differences with the actor on the set of his widely misunderstood (and famously self-funded) film Megalopolis, still considers Shia LaBeouf a “great and interesting” artist.
For those who may have missed the film in 2024, and its resulting making-of documentary Megadoc the following year, LaBeouf plays the envy-driven Clodio Pulcher in the ambitiously hopeful story. The 40-year-old actor, who last month avoided time behind bars in connection with his much-publicized New Orleans arrest, was part of an ensemble cast led by Adam Driver.
“Shia LaBeouf is a great and interesting actor to work with; in the tradition of Dennis Hopper in his search to find the truth, I think he did a great job in Megalopolis,” Coppola wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday (July 12). “I sincerely wish him all the best!”
In last year’s Megadoc, helmed by Mike Figgis, viewers were given a warts-and-all look at LaBeouf and Coppola’s differing approaches to bringing the long-gestating story to the screen. Even then, it was clear, however, that there was a shared sense of respect, no matter how contentious their working relationship was.
At one point in the doc, LaBeouf relayed to co-star Jon Voight that he was “worried about getting fired all the time.” In another, he recalled Coppola telling him he had been “the biggest pain in my fucking ass of any actor I’ve ever worked with,” a sentiment he pushed back against by referencing the late Marlon Brando notoriously showing up dramatically overweight to the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s Apocalypse Now set.
The morning after this exchange of words, which LaBeouf said ended with Coppola telling him to “get out,” the director sent him an email expressing gratitude for the “good work” he had done on Megalopolis.
“However, we remain two totally different viewpoints, which, of course, is how people tend to be. I love you,” Coppola said in the email, according to LaBeouf.
During an appearance on the Bad Friends podcast in June of last year, LaBeouf said he didn’t ultimately end up liking the final version of Megalopolis, though he still loved Coppola.
The film didn’t fare well at the box office and drew decidedly mixed reviews, though it certainly has its champions (me included). Coppola has continued to promote the film, including through special screenings in select cities nearly two years after its initial release.
