Shia LaBeouf’s intense new role left a debut film on edge

Shia LaBeouf’s performance in The Rooster Prince became so intense during one parking lot scene that director Josh Penn Soskin says he let the camera keep rolling because the line between acting and real distress had become hard to read.

In a first-person account published by Variety, Soskin said LaBeouf was shouting across a parking lot while playing Eli, a character inspired by Soskin’s late brother David, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist who had bipolar disorder. After three takes, Soskin said, the scene was finished, LaBeouf had left, producers were anxious and members of the crew had been frightened and hurt by what happened.

Soskin wrote that he saw “deep pain” in LaBeouf during the moment, connecting it to the suffering he had witnessed in his brother before David’s death. The filmmaker said he later faced the crew, unsure how to hold together a production that had become emotionally raw.

The Rooster Prince, Soskin’s feature directing debut, began production in November 2025. The film stars LaBeouf, Jackson White and Melissa Leo, and is based on Soskin’s relationship with David.

Soskin described David as his closest companion growing up, someone who introduced him to books, movies, surfing and punk music. He said David later turned toward psychiatry and became known for his research, while also concealing his own illness.

According to Soskin, David had a manic break in 2017 in Toronto, where he was found running naked in the street and was placed in a mental hospital. Soskin said his brother wrote violent poems, claimed Apple had hacked him and fought with security guards. After agreeing to take lithium, Soskin wrote, David came to live with him in California.

The director said that period brought both closeness and fear: David attended dance parties, spent money on Bitcoin, gave money to strangers on Venice Beach and drove fast along the Pacific Coast Highway on trips to surf together. Soskin said David later fell into depression, his medical license came under investigation by the state psychiatry board and he died by suicide within six months.

Soskin said writing The Rooster Prince became his way of processing grief during the COVID period while raising two toddlers. He said his brother left behind poems, books and other material written during mania, which helped shape the script.

LaBeouf, Soskin wrote, was quickly drawn to the role. The actor has spoken publicly about addiction and PTSD, and previously made Honey Boy, a film drawn from his own life. Soskin said LaBeouf studied David’s books, worked intensely and often appeared to sleep little.

To make the film feel closer to a documentary, Soskin said he reduced lighting and crew presence, while the cinematographer used a small camera that could fit inside a car during road-trip scenes.

After the parking lot incident, Soskin said LaBeouf sent him a rehearsal video for a scene scheduled the next day. In it, the actor added the line: “All I ask from you is that you treat me with…maximum empathy.” Soskin said that phrase became the center of the speech he gave to the crew the following morning, asking for compassion for people who had been harmed and for people who had caused harm.

LaBeouf’s off-screen history also remains part of the public record. Variety reported that he was arrested in February 2026 during a Mardi Gras altercation in New Orleans, later pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery and received a six-month suspended sentence, two years of probation and alcohol treatment. He was previously ordered to attend rehab after a 2017 arrest in Georgia. FKA Twigs sued LaBeouf in 2020 alleging sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress; the case was settled in July 2025.

This story draws on original reporting from Variety.