Starring in a huge blockbuster movie can be the dream of many actors, but Shia LaBeouf seems to regret his role in the action-adventure film Indiana Jones. The Transformers star portrayed Mutt Williams in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
The revival of the swashbuckling franchise grossed over $787 million worldwide, enough to revitalize the actor’s career. Despite the success, he never returned to the sequel following some issues with the production.
Shia LaBeouf On Leaving Indiana Jones Franchise
In an interview with Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street 2 actor Shia LaBeouf got candid and confessed his sentiments about joining the franchise for the second time:
“I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished. If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me.”
The actor had some troubles with his performance and admitted that he isn’t the kind of action hero that Indiana Jones is claiming him to be:
“You get to monkey-swinging and things like that, and you can blame it on the writer, and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg, who directed]. But the actor’s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn’t do it. So that’s my fault. Simple.”
LaBeouf said that he could have kept his thoughts to himself, but he believed that even the audience cannot be fooled, and they know that he did not deliver the job.
“I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you’ve made, and I think if you don’t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you’re promoting a movie.”
The Eagle Eye actor revealed he and co-star Harrison Ford had problems with the franchise:
“He wasn’t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted. We need to be able to satiate the appetite. I think we just misinterpreted what we were trying to satiate.”
LaBeouf knew that this confession would get him in trouble and might even get a call from Steven Spielberg. He has an intimate friendship with the director, although he believed he needed to get this out of his system.
Shia LaBeouf Tried To Crawl Out Of His Indiana Jones Failure
With Shia LaBeouf gone from the franchise, his character was finally written off and believed to have been killed in action while serving the army in Vietnam. Following several controversies and legal troubles, studios have been staying away from the actor. When asked if he was worried it might ruin his career, he told Variety:
“I had people tell me it was going to. People I respected — dudes I wanted to work with — just looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Life’s too short for this sh*t.’ I’m still earning my way back.”
LaBeouf was referring to his role in the Indiana Jones franchise which received a lot of negative reception. His character was not supposed to return in the sequel, and the actor would not likely have returned anyway.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is available on Disney+, Paramount+, and Apple TV.
