Shia LaBeouf Is Ready to Talk About It

The actor sets out to save his career—and his soul. [ view in [browser](. add esquire@newsletter.esquire.com to your address book ] [Esquire]( [Sunday Reads] FOLLOW US [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Instagram]( [You Tube]( [Google Plus]( [Shia LaBeouf Is Ready to Talk About It]( Shia LaBeouf is nervous about this story—"I have so much fear about this thing," he confesses to me when we first meet—and it drives him to do what he's always done when faced with something he cannot fully control: Prepare. Obsessively. For the past two months, he's conducted practice interviews over the phone with his therapist, anticipating all of the possible scenarios, workshopping his responses to my questions. It's been a long time since Vanity Fair put him on the cover of its August 2007 issue, wearing a spacesuit over a suit-suit (it looks as awkward as it sounds), and heralded him at age twenty-one as "the Next Tom Hanks." More than a decade on, LaBeouf's arc is less a stratospheric ascent than a misguided rocket wobbling across the sky, strewing wreckage. Yes, LaBeouf is the guy who was handed a golden ticket and promptly lit it on fire. [READ MORE]( [MORE FROM ESQUIRE] [Esquire]( [These Are the Coolest Spring Shoes Under $100]( From Chelsea boots to low-top sneakers. [Read On]( [Esquire]( [Every Star Wars Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best]( Phantom Menace is not the worst one. [Read On]( [Esquire]( [From Cooking Steaks to Interviewing the President: The Evolution of Anthony Bourdain]( The man behind Kitchen Confidential, Parts Unknown, and the long line outside that restaurant you've been meaning to try has been flexing his influence for nearly two decades. [Read On]( [Esquire]( [Don't Confuse Justin Hartley With the Actor He Plays on TV]( The This Is Us star has evolved with his character, Kevin Pearson—but that doesn't mean the two men are one and the same. [Read On]( [Esquire]( [The Most Interesting Man in the World Is Gone. Long Live the Most Interesting Man in the World.]( Jonathan Goldsmith talks about Dos Equis' decision to end the campaign, and the legacy of his iconic character. [Read On]( [Unsubscribe]( • [Privacy Policy]( [esquire.com]( ©2018 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019