14 DAY TRIAL // Shia LaBeouf is so scared of not getting the part right that he’s willing to put health considerations aside for a while just so he can understand a character. Below is a video of the actor admitting to dropping acid for “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.”
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, with its two stars, Shia and Evan Rachel Wood, doing plenty of interviews to promote it.
They also spoke to MTV News about it and Shia confirmed what he’d hinted at in an August interview: he really did drop acid to play the part of a drug addict.
However, it wasn’t for the fun of it, he insists: he’s just so afraid that he won’t be able to get the part right that he wanted to experience the effects to know that he could mimic them in front of a camera afterwards.
Shia also admits to sending Evan tapes of himself high to see what she thought of it.
“I remember sending Evan tapes. I remember trying to conjure this [drug-addicted character] and sending tapes and Evan being like, ‘Yeah, that's good, but that's not, but this is, but that ain't’,” Shia explained for MTV News, as the video below will confirm.
“Not like she's the expert on set. I'm just saying you reach out to friends, and you sort of gauge where you're at. So I was sending tapes around,” the actor added as Evan was giggling uncontrollably.
Still, he never showed up on set wasted because that is right there in unprofessionalism territory, it’s no longer research.
“You don't show up wasted. You don't show up completely tripping on acid. But you're rooting for something [the feeling of being on drugs], and you're pushing yourself toward it. Everyone's got their own way,” Shia notes.