Directed by Leo Lewis O’Neil, Slauson Rec chronicles the actor's former theater workshop, the Slauson Recreational Center Theater collective. The film debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 18 with LaBeouf, 38, in attendance.
The behind-the-scenes look at the theater group — which the Transformers star launched free of charge in Los Angeles in 2018 — is a harrowing account that sees the actor inflict what Variety describes as "emotional terror" on his students. Due to the troubling subject matter, nearly 30 audience members walked out of the screening, per the outlet.
In the film, a company member named Zeke reveals he's booked a part in a Netflix show, causing LaBeouf to “turn on” the young actor, according to Variety. Zeke ultimately responds by quitting Slauson, after which LaBeouf “instigates” a fist fight with Zeke that leaves his former student scraped and bruised, the outlet reports.
In a filmed confrontation between the two, the Megalopolis actor reportedly slams his fist on a table and yells at his pupil before throwing him against the wall, according to Variety and Vanity Fair.
“I don’t give a f--- what you say to me… You’ve got it better than I ever had it,” LaBeouf reportedly yells at Zeke in the documentary. “What the f--- is the attitude problem? I’m giving you everything I have, so stop f---ing with me.”
Reflecting on the altercation, which ended with him driving off, Zeke later told Vanity Fair in a separate interview, “All that was f---ed up. … People let him get away with it.”
According to Variety, another sequence in the film sees LaBeouf firing a company member named Sarah from a play after she elected to remain in Slauson rehearsals while her mother was dying in the hospital. Her mom later succumbs to her illness and, two weeks before the play is set to open, LaBeouf reportedly fires her, as documented in the film.
The reasoning he gives in the documentary, according to Variety, is that “the show simply works better without her in the part.”
At the beginning of Slauson Rec, a present-day LaBeouf says he’s “done a lot of coming to terms with the failure that was my life, and the plastic foundation I had,” per Variety. In the same interview, he also acknowledges that he’s “left a lot of people in the wake of my personality defects,” the outlet reports.
While speaking to Vanity Fair for an interview published in April, O’Neil said that LaBeouf offered his blessing for the documentary to be made with no editorializing. The filmmaker simply brought a camera to the first Slauson class, where the actor subsequently “encouraged him to film everything that took place,” according to the outlet.
“I gave Leo this camera and encouraged him to share his vision and his personal experience without edit,” LaBeouf said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “I am aware of the doc and fully support the release of the film. While my teaching methods may be unconventional for some, I am proud of the incredible accomplishments that these kids achieved. Together we turned a drama class into an acting company. I wish only good things for Leo and everyone who was part of The Slauson Rec Company.”
